The Midnight Snake
by animefan1009
Summary: Before he was The Viper, all he had was a fanged mask and a hoodie. Before she was Midnight she was a child. He hunts for vengeance. She hunts to survive. Tokyo Ghoul OC fic Rating may change
1. Origins

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Ghoul.**

Before he was The Viper, all he had was a fanged mask and a hoodie. Before she was Midnight she was a child. He hunts for vengeance. She hunts to survive.

Nathaniel ran as fast as he could. No matter what sounds he heard behind he refused to look back. He was bleeding out of multiple wounds but his rinkaku was working its hardest to fix them. The ghouls in red cloaks were chasing him profusely. His now blond streak fell before his face but he quickly swiped it out of the way. In a haze he turned to the three chasing him and all went fuzzy to him.

* * *

Ariana jumped between buildings. Her ukaku bat wing kagune assisted her greatly. She wasn't planning on taking this route but some doves showed up unexpectedly. She was weary of meeting someone in the 13th ward but she needed to pick up some food. She wished her mask wasn't in the shop so she had to wear a spare one she made from bandages.

After a while Ariana froze. She found herself much deeper in the 13th ward than she hoped. Looking around she couldn't figure out the quickest way back to home in the nearby 10th ward. She also made a mental note not to visit Roxanne at night.

At that moment she smelt blood, ghoul blood.

"Great, it's that tree organization thing again," she complained. Out of instinct she ran towards the out of place scent.

Nathaniel struck the last of the three attackers down. All three laid there motionlessly. The fight had taken a toll on him as well. The large gaping wounds wouldn't close fast enough causing heavy blood loss. Before he could make another move he started feeling faint.

The smell was very strong now. Ariana had to hold her nose to keep out some of the fishy scent. From her spot on the building she could see three ghoul corpses and one ghoul still standing. Leaning a bit closer she attempted to get a better a look. Soon she noticed the standing ghoul was covered in blood that may or may not have been his own. The scent from the bleeding ghoul confirmed her suspensions. Before she could say anything to him he collapsed on the ground.

"Was that an armored kagune?" she asked herself after he fell. Jumping from the building, using her wings help glide her down, she landed close to the boy but had step back to the now extremely bad smell. Ignoring it she ran to the boy, being immediately taken back by the blond streak. She pushed his bangs and gasped in horror.

"What could have happened to him?" she asked. Hearing voices behind her she immediately picked the boy up and bolted away. She picked up speed easily and took off.

It seemed like forever between the time Ariana picked up the bleeding ghoul, to safely reaching her home in the 10th ward. Wrapping up the wounds as best she could, she was able to give the boy the appearance of having passed out drunk. Making it safely to her apartment she laid the boy on her sofa and decided to try and relax.

Sometime later she heard a knock at her door. Opening it up she saw Roxanne standing on the other side.

"You didn't come to pick up your food and I got worried," she explained with concern before peering in closer, "who's the guy?"

"No idea," Ariana answered looking back to him, "I found him passed out on my way to your place a brought him here."

"Is he dead?" Roxanne asked bluntly.

"No I'm pretty sure he has a rinkaku and will pull through."

"Well if your guest gets hungry after a week I may have an extra hand with your name on it." Roxanne whispered the last part into Ariana's ear before walking away.

"And don't go fooling with him" she playfully taunted. "Eww" said Ariana."I wouldn't do that."

After walking inside and locking the door, Ariana placed the bag of food on the small living room table before departing into the bathroom to wash up. Getting into the shower she quickly washed the blood away. As she walked out she thought she heard the scrunching of a paper bag but thought nothing of it. When she was all changed she couldn't believe what was in front of her. The boy was standing on her balcony scarfing down the arm Roxanne had brought.

"What are you doing?" she panicked rushing towards him, "people will see you."

The boy swallowed and looked at her, ghoul eyes standing out on his face. "Do you have any more?"

"No," Ariana answered angrily, "that was all I had, and my food for the week."

"Well I need more." The boy was drooling like a wild animal.

"Geesh you'd have a field day with Roxanne." Ariana quickly left grabbing a sack and bandages on her way out.

"She didn't have a mask," Nathaniel realized after the girl walked out, "hopefully the doves aren't in the area. Come to think of it where am I?"

Walking inside Nathaniel explored the small apartment. He tried looking for clues on his location but couldn't find anything.

"She is very secretive," Nathaniel couldn't help but notice. "There's got to be food around here somewhere."

Immediately he went to her fridge but found only water inside. Opening the cabinets he found containers of coffee.

"Ok she wasn't joking about the lack of food, what should I do? I'm so hungry!" His stomach growled as he laid on the sofa. "She'll be back with more… I hope…" he mumbled to himself as he fell asleep.

* * *

Ariana wiped the blood from her face. This kill had been successful. She could eat the body up right here, but then she remembered she needed to bring some up for the boy. Cutting it up into pieces she placed them into the sack and flew back up to the apartment.

Quickly she reached her apartment's balcony. Once she opened the door the boy jolted awake at the smell of flesh.

"That smells so good," he said intoxicated by the smell. Quickly he bolted for it but Araina stopped him.

"No this is for both of us," she reprimanded him, "I'm not about to go begging to the neighbors for food because someone can't control his hunger."

"But my stomach is a little bigger. I want food."

"If you wait and let me prepare it for you like a good little boy than. you'll get some food." She teased. The boy leered up at her annoyed.

The boy reluctantly sat on the couch with his arms crossed. Ariana tooked her time but was able to make two dishes along with some coffee for them.

"That's not enough for me," the boy argued.

"I just saw you scarf my dinner down you don't get picky now" she argued back

"That was an hour ago!" He snapped desperately wanting food.

"So?" Ariana growled.

"I haven't been able to hunt for food for a long time, in fact I was Starved!" He yelled.

"You were starved?" Ariana asked out of suspicion and shock.

"Yes I was, and it was utterly horrible!" He yelled angrily.

"Was it by the CCG?" Ariana asked still a little suspicious.

"No it was by a ghoul. It's uncomfortable saying his name."

"That makes no sense, why would a ghoul starve another ghoul?"

"He didn't want to waste his food on me, It was utter hell…"

"You sure that you were tortured?"

"I'm very sure" he said pushing away his hair and showing the blond streak left through his hair.

"I thought you dyed it." She said pointing to the streak.

"No, this is from stress I think, I had it after… I'm not sure how long I was tortured for…"

Ariana remained silent. She had no idea what to say. If the boy was tortured by a ghoul no doubt talking about it brought back painful memories.

"Hey, I never asked you, what's your name?"

 **AN: Hi everyone my friend Ender came up with idea for a story, so we decided to write it together. We're going to try to avoid the main story as much as we can, so major characters might only be mentioned or cameo. Hope you liked the first chapter and see you in the next one.**


	2. The Hunt

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Ghoul.**

"It's Ariana," Ariana answered placing the food down.

"I'm Nathaniel." Nathaniel revealed to her. "I must say you are a lifesaver."

"Oh," she said preparing some coffee, "do you drink coffee. We ghouls can digest it, so you won't get sick if you have some."

"I'm not some new ghoul who's wet behind the ears, I'd love some coffee."

Ariana prepared two cups of coffee and brought them to the table. She gave the one with a bit more coffee in it to Nathaniel, as he was her guest. Nathaniel meanwhile was ravenously devoured the food in front of him.

"Wow you are hungry."

"Well an expanded stomach doesn't help much." Nathaniel said as he finished his food.

"Oh you're a binge eater." Ariana took a bite of flesh.

"My mother was a binge eater." Nathaniel sipped his coffee. "Hmm, this is pretty mediocre."

"What do you know about making coffee?" Ariana asked defensively.

"I just had some in the 20th ward that was really good. It was in this small coffee shop and one server smelled like a girl despite his male appearance."

"Never been there." Ariana responded.

"No matter, I'm still kind of hungry. Want to go hunt some more?"

"I don't want to get the doves suspicious."

"Then we'll go hunt in other ward. By the way what ward are we in?"

"Just one ward over, in the 10th."

"Okay that's good. I have to get back to them soon."

"Get back to who?" Ariana asked confused.

"I have a couple of uh... friends in the 13th ward."

"Why the pause?" Ariana asked highly suspicious of Nathaniel now.

"They're friends!" Nathaniel yelled defensively before his stomach growled, "Also we should better get going."

"In what ward?"

"How about the 9th? We can blame it on the tree organization."

"Do I get a bite?" Ariana asked sipping the remainder of her coffee. "You did eat the arm I was going to."

Nathaniel nodded. "We'll be fine. So yeah."

* * *

Ariana walked closely behind Nathaniel. She still didn't fully trust this newcomer and the pause didn't help him. Suddenly she stopped, Nathaniel was trailing two doves.

"Does this guy have a death wish?" she whispered to herself before asking him, "Do you know what you're doing?"

"Do you have your mask on?" he asked turning to her

"My face is wrapped." she answered.

"Good, follow my lead." Nathaniel whispered trying to look casual.

"You sure you know what you're doing?" Ariana asked still unsure about the situation.

"Yes, doves have a good mix of muscle, the flesh is good, but the vengeance is sweeter" he answered.

"I mean for an attack plan, they could have quinques on them."

"They didn't, they had no boxes, no quinques…" he replied gravely.

"You sure do know a lot about doves," Ariana said as she backed away slightly.

He turned to Ariana. "Knowing is half the battle" he said as his retinas turned black and his irises turned red. "Let's go."

Ariana followed Nathaniel with caution. This boy couldn't possibly be hungry enough to eat two doves, even if he was a binge eater.

Nathaniel's lower back bubbled and two magenta tentacles popped out of his back and he started to run at the dove pair. Ariana released her ukaku letting the bat like wings spread out. Nathaniel struck one of the suited men through the back, almost instantly snapping his spine, killing him. The other man grabbed a pipe on the ground and hit Nathaniel in the head.

"Augh! Ariana!" he called out to her for backup

At that moment Ariana rushed over. Raising her wings she shot out spikes hitting the other dove, knocking him to the ground. Jumping upon him she shot another spike into his stomach. After a few minutes of screams of agony he was dead.

Nathaniel got back up and started eating. "Thanks for the help" he said as he started regenerating.

"No problem," she said to him. Ripping off a dead dove's arm she bit into it.

"You happy now?" Nathaniel smirked as he devoured the bodies.

"Yes," she answered taking another bite.

* * *

Ariana walked into her apartment and sighed. It felt good to be home. Nathaniel walked in after her, content with his meal. Lying on the couch Ariana finally got a moment to rest all night.

"Hey can I stay here for the night?" Nathaniel asked after poking her.

"Eh why not," she answered.

"Where can I sleep?" Nathaniel asked with a small burp. "Oh excuse me."

"You can sleep here," Ariana stood up from where she was lying down, "I'll get you the spare blanket and pillows."

"Do you always have guests here?" he asked her jokingly.

"It's when Roxanne crashes here," Ariana admitted leaving the room. Walking into her bedroom she opened up the closet and pulled out the blanket and pillows. Carrying them out she found Nathaniel on the couch fast asleep.

"Wow he really was tired," Ariana said walking over to him. Careful not to wake him she slowly lifted his head and placed the pillow under it. Taking the blanket she draped it over him making sure every inch of him was covered. As she was about to leave she couldn't help but notice that Nathaniel had hint of a smile on his face.

"He does seem sort of nice," Ariana admitted to herself, "even if there are a ton of things I don't know about him."

Nathaniel snored softly and contently on the couch. Unconsciously he brought the blanket close to him and rubbed his head against the pillow.

"He is also sort of cute when he's asleep." Ariana laughed a bit before walking inside her room. Lying on her bed she saw her phone turn on. Picking it up she noticed a text from Roxanne.

 _So how's the kid doing?_ The text asked.

 _He's doing fine_ Ariana replied

 _Do you still need food from me for him?_

 _No he's fine_

 _Ok talk to you later_

 _Okay later_ Ariana turned her phone off and placed it back on her nightstand. Turning to her side she quickly fell asleep.

 **AN: Another chapter done. I have to thank Ender for helping me with the action scene. He als wrote most of Nathaniel's dialogue and actions. I wrote for Ariana. See you next chapter.**


	3. A Short Parting

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Ghoul**

Ariana woke up stretching. Walking to the door she saw Nathaniel still fast asleep on

the couch. Grabbing some clothes she headed towards the bathroom. Once there she undressed and hopped in the shower.

Nathaniel woke up abruptly. Very groggy he went to the bathroom. "I'll just grab a quick shower, she won't notice… I should leave soon after it though…" Opening the shower curtain he heard a scream. Quickly he jumped back falling on his back.

"Sorry!" he yelled eyes closed and mind racing. The blood rushed to his face

Ariana closed the curtain immediately and didn't say embarrassed, Nathaniel started making some coffee. Taking out two cups he placed them on the table before pouring some out into each. Over the years he's had practice making it.

Ariana walked out of the shower. Putting on her clothes she noticed that her face still had a tint of red to it.

"Geesh I've only known him a day, why am I blushing?" She said to herself. Walking out she saw Nathaniel sitting at the table with two cups in front of him.

"Uh, this an apology for earlier," Nathaniel said scratching the back of his head.

"Uh, thank you." Ariana sat down and took her cup. Taking a sip she had to admit Nathaniel was pretty good at making coffee. "Well I got to get to school soon. You're free to crash here if you need to."

"Okay then," Nathaniel responded, "I'm only going to stay a little bit longer."

* * *

Ariana walked home a bit tired. It was a long day at school. Not because the lessons were boring or that she was surrounded by humans but because she had to sit behind the most annoying in her class. If Ariana could she would tear her apart right then and there.

"I swear her head is going to pop if it gets any bigger." she said annoyed walking to her apartment. Glad to be home she opened the door. The first thing she noticed was Nathaniel was gone and that a mask with a note was on the table. Picking the note up first she read it.

 _Hey Ariana,_

 _I've left the ward and I'm probably back in the 13th by the time you're reading this. I left this mask as a second sorry gift. Since, your old mask never showed up so i figured you might want to stop using old bandages. Anyway The mask was a rough estimate on the measurements, when we meet again I'll make sure it fits._

 _Hope to see you again soon._

 _-Nathaniel_

 _P.S. If you want to find me, I'm in the thirteenth ward occupying a small little fortress._

"Hmm, wasn't expecting him to be gone already," Ariana placed the note down and picked up the mask. She saw that it had a crescent moon on one side and the other was dark blues with stars around it. Placing it on she saw it was a perfect fit. "How he guessed my measurements so accurately I'll never know"

Sitting down Ariana read the note over again. She wondered how long he had been gone. "I wish I could have said goodbye to him and thank him for the mask."

She looked to the corner and there was an unfamiliar, partially tattered, green jacket.

"This… isn't mine,so then did he leave it here by accident?" She thought to herself she was a little confused, he seemed at least a little organized.

"He'll probably be back for this," Ariana thought to herself deciding to hang it up in the closet. Making herself some coffee she laid down and thought about where he could have gone.

* * *

Five days passed and Nathaniel hadn't come back, no sign of him except for his jacket. Arianna sat back and looked out the window. She had expected him to come back already. She also had no idea if he made it home or not.

"I can understand him not coming back right away," she said to herself, "but it's been five days. How has he not noticed. Unless," She paused not wanting to say it. "Unless he didn't make it back."

Walking over to her nightstand she picked up the note again and reread it. "It says here that he would be in the thirteenth."

She stood there that last sentence stood out to her. He had mentioned living in the thirteenth ward but what did he mean by the fortress.

"If he doesn't show up by tomorrow afternoon I'm going after him."

The next day Ariana waited but by nightfall Nathaniel had not returned. Grabbing her own jacket and his, along with her new mask, she set out in search for him.

"Didn't think I'd be back here so soon," Ariana said as she walked into the 13th ward. "Hopefully Roxanne doesn't see me, she'd probably think I'm here for food and I doubt she knows where Nathaniel is."

While she was walking a strange building caught her eye. It was abandoned and fortified, a few windows were broken as well, the building was a literal fortress. Assuming it was the place she was looking for, Ariana approached it. When she reached the door she knocked on it. A little boy wearing a dog mask and cloak opened it.

"What do you want?" he asked in tough tone.

Ariana tried to hide her slight laughter. "I'm looking for someone named Nathaniel?"

"What does it mean to you?" The 8 year old boy puffed out his chest.

"I have his jacket," Ariana pulled it out and showed it to the boy, "All I wish is to return it to him."

"And what if your just a dove?"

"What makes you say I'm a dove?" Ariana asked annoyed.

"What makes me think you're not?" The boy asked still trying to look tough.

"Would a dove return a ghoul's jacket?" She gestured to the jacket again.

"What if that's just bait?" The boy's eyes started to turn red.

"It's not."

"What if you're lying?"

"Does this look like i'm lying?" Ariana leaned closer to him and let her eyes turn red.

The boy recoiled a bit "Intruder!" He yelled.

"That's enough!" A familiar voice called.

The figure walked out with a grey shirt and black pants on, it was Nathaniel.

"It's been awhile hasn't it?" He smiled.

 **AN: Another chapter finished. I would like to thank Ender for making the new cover because it is awesome. See you next chapter.**


	4. The Organization

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Ghoul.**

"Hello Nathaniel," Ariana greeted, "I brought your jacket back."

Nathaniel smiled and took the jacket back. "I've been looking all over for this."

"You left it back at my place."

"I didn't know I left it there." Nathaniel said as he scratched his head.

"I guess I better be off." Ariana started heading towards the door. "Maybe I'll see you around."

"Wait, wait, wait," Nathaniel grabbed her shoulder, "do you have your mask?"

"Right here." Ariana pulled out the mask and showed it to him.

"Alright put it on, I want to see how it fits."

Without saying anything Ariana put the mask on her head. Nathaniel started examining the mask, looking at how it fit.

After an hour Nathaniel stood back in surprise. "It's a perfect fit."

"It surprised me too." Ariana turned her back to him. "Well I should be going."

"Wait," Ariana faced him again, "the doves should be starting to become active soon. Why don't you stay here for the night?"

"I wouldn't want to be a burden on you. I can handle a few doves."

Nathaniel chuckled before gesturing to a room behind them. "Go check that room."

Ariana shrugged and walked over there. Opening the door her mouth hung open. Inside the room was a huge pile of corpses stood. A few ghoul children sat at the foot eating from the pile. "How did you get so many bodies?"

"Some of them were doves I ran into. The rest were citizens the orphans captured."

"Most of these were doves?"

"Yeah…" he looked at the pile and then cracked his pointer finger with his thumb. "they were mostly unarmed… I can't really handle a dove with a Quinque yet…" he stared darkly at the floor. "I would probably die…"

Ariana remained silent. She had no idea how to respond to that statement.

"Well let's change the topic, I want you to join my group." He smiled and reached out his hand

"That is pretty blunt of you to offer." Ariana pointed out with her arms crossed.

He paused "well, your ukaku looks well developed and strong… and your… r-really cool…" his face turned a little red as he looked down.

"What are the terms?" Ariana asked. "I'm joining anything until I know what I'm in for."

"Maybe just living here and helping care for the group, there's no real codes of conduct or anything, I barely started an organization, more like an orphanage at the moment." He looked normal again.

"How many orphans are there?" She asked slightly worried for the kids safety.

"About 70, 50 of which are fighting ready, of course those ones range in age of 13-16" he looked at the smaller children passing by. "The ratio is fair so there are always enough for the little ones"

Ariana eyes widen. Over seventy ghouls lived here. How did they even get enough food to feed everyone? And Nathaniel wanted her to add to that. "Oh I wouldn't want to be a burden on you."

He looked at the fair sized pile of corpses. "I don't think that's a problem." He smiled.

"I'm still not sure about this." Her thoughts turned to her mother.

A feminine voice cut into the conversation. "Believe me you're no burden, just stay a while." A girl roughly 18 walked in, she wore a long hooded coat and had short blond hair. "Just take the offer. We need the backup." She didn't smile, but she didn't make it look mean either.

"I already have a place! In the 10th ward."

"And I think you need a change of scenery." She stared at Ariana coldly

"How would you know what I need?" Ariana asked defensively.

"Because there is no home for ghouls, not with the CCG" she said coldly.

"There are other ghouls where I live."

"Then they'll probably find out that lesson the hard way."

"I've lived there for a couple years without a single problem"

"Fine, go" the girl said coldly. Nathaniel put his hand on the girl's shoulder.

"That's enough Arden". She interrupted again "No, she wants to go. Let her."

Ariana left in a huff as Arden said that. This was so annoying, she barely knew Nathaniel and he wanted her to join his group. Well, actually she was fine with that. It was when she refused some other ghoul had to get all defensive. Well they don't know what happened. They didn't know the pain organizations had caused her family.

* * *

"And that's why I'm here." Ariana finished explaining to Roxanne. "I need a place to blow off steam."

"It's alright with me." Roxanne said leading her inside. "Would you like some coffee?"

"Sure I'll take some." Ariana sat down on the couch.

"So almost dead guy is part of a gang?" Roxanne said as she starts making coffee.

"Yup and they have over seventy members."

"Wow for someone who almost died he sure has a lot of friends." She thought for a moment. "Does he even have a name?"

"It's Nathaniel."

"Well I'm still calling him almost dead guy." Roxanne handed Ariana a cup full of coffee.

"Thank you." She took the cup and took a sip. "Good as always Roxanne."

"You know me I have a way with it." Ariana laughed at Roxanne's comment. "So are you considering his offer?"

"No." Ariana said a bit defensively. "You know how I feel about those organizations or gangs."

"I don't see why." Roxanne sipped her coffee. "They could be safer than where you live."

"You're not part of one."

"True but I have a few members from a couple of gangs that come here. Let's just say it's good to be on good terms with them. You on the other hand avoid them like the CCG."

"I don't want to get involved in that world."

"So haven't you said that ghouls have to stick together."

"Not in gangs."

"Anything else about almost dead guy's place?"

"They had a giant room full of corpses."

"And you're saying no to them!? It's a giant room of food!" Roxanne stood up in disbelief.

"I'll admit that part is nice. But it's actually something different about gangs that I avoid."

"Did a gang boy break your heart?" Roxanne teased as she sat back down.

"No, I told about the only guy I dated."

"Whatever happened to him?"

"Beats me, he could be dead for all I know."

"I got it! You don't want to join his gang because of some guy."

"And you say that because?"

"Simple you just want to be with this guy. You know you have coffee then you go to his place for some fun." She grinned at Ariana

"I don't like what you're implying."

"Whatever." Roxanne shrugged. "You know who to call when that happens."

Ariana walked home. For some reason it seemed longer tonight. After the craziness with Nathaniel she couldn't wait to relax at home. Honestly this was one of the most stressful days of her life. Just relaxing at home seemed like a dream to her.

"LET'S GO MOVE IT!" A man's voice cut through the silence

Ariana rounded the corner and was met by a cluster of CCG vans, and her home being burned down as the sound of gunfire rang in her ears.

 **AN: Finally this is done. So far this is one of the hardest chapters we had to write.**

 **ENDER: meh, we just lost track of time, sorry guys, we'll try to make it worth it.**

 **See you next chapter**


	5. Ariana's Choice

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Ghoul.**

"What is going on here?!" Ariana asked in panic as the mayhem continued.

A CCG membered noticed the young ghoul's distraught. Thankfully for her he didn't noticed that she was actually a ghoul and approached.

"Sorry, reports say there was a binge eater in the complex, we couldn't stop the fire."

He looked a little sorry for the young ghoul in front of him, not knowing her true identity.

"What, that can't be possible." Ariana said shock. She had known that some of her neighbors were also ghouls but she had no idea one was a binge eater.

"She went by the name The One eyed Mummy, reports say she reappeared around here with a big appetite." The young investigator replied. "She didn't live here but she left a metaphorical trail of blood. We followed but we got a little carried away…" he looked very guilty.

Over the investigator's shoulder there were humans, or pieces of them being carried out on gurneys. Ariana recognized some of them as her neighbors.

"I can't believe it." Ariana cried as tears started to emerge from her eyes. "They can't be dead!" She collapsed on the ground and covered her face.

The Investigator rubbed her shoulder. "I'm sorry… there's nothing we could do" He wrote a phone number on a piece of paper "Here. I'm Stephen, Call me if anything happens." He smiled.

"Thank you." She said as she took the card.

All of a sudden, his walkie talkie went off "Stephen, We need you up here."

Stephen scratched his head. "That's my cue, We can have a cup of coffee together later I hope" He walked away to the burning building

"What do I do now?" She whispered to herself. Facing her home it was easy to tell that the fire would destroy the entire thing. With nothing else to do she hung her head and left.

* * *

Ariana continued aimlessly walking the streets. She had no idea what ward or even what street she was on. Everything except for the image of her home burning was a blur to her.

"Wow… This little quiet life you wanted really went to the dogs." A familiar voice came from a wolf mask who was looking at her.

"I'm not in the mood Arden." Ariana said still crying a bit.

"I'm not here to gloat, I'm here with an invite from the leader of Dragon's Claw" She handed Ariana a cloak with a dragon insignia on it.

"I told you already. I don't want to join."

Arden sighed and shook her head " I mean... It doesn't look like you have a choice"

"I do have a choice."

"And what is that choice?" Arden sounded a little irritated.

"I could stay with a friend." She said a little defensively.

"And let the CCG do the same to your friends house and possibly kill your friend?

"My friends are very good at hiding their identities."

"That won't stop the doves…"

"It's not my fault some random binge eater chose to hide in my place!"

"Who's to say they won't strike near your house next?

"That I have no idea if they will or not." Ariana looked down again.

"Exactly" Arden cast her cold steely glare on Ariana.

"But I'm still not joining." Ariana tried to hold her ground. But she had to admit Arden had some good points.

"Aww, how touching, two lovely little ladies, now hold still and it won't hurt" A masked man came around the corner as a large Kokaku spike emerged from his back.

"What bad timing." Ariana said as she reached into her bag to pull out her mask. She placed it on not sure what was going to happen.

The man swung the Kokaku at Ariana, trying to slash her.

Thinking quickly Ariana dodged the attack. Focusing hard she released her ukaku. She it wasn't the best against kokaku but it had to do.

The man scoffed and ran at her with his kagune up like a shield, Knowing he had the advantage. And He punched her hard in the stomach

The man quickly knocked Ariana down. She tried to get up but failed.

The man went to grab Ariana, but in a flash of light he had no hand to grab her with.

He was then cut in two by Arden's kagune, a long bikaku tail.

"Thank you." Ariana said still on the ground.

"Yeah.. now you see why a "gang" isn't so bad?" She seemed a little put off by the word gang.

"We should get moving"

"I have my reasons you know." Ariana said standing up.

"Well you need a place for the night, and Nathaniel saw your apartment on the news, he's worried sick, Come stay for the night." She reached out a hand for Ariana.

Ariana didn't know how to respond. She had a deep feeling in her gut there was some kind of catch to this. Still she couldn't think of a better option. Roxanne could be with friends or asleep. Taking a deep breath in she accepted Arden's hand.

They walked to the fortress in the 13th ward together.

* * *

When they walked in Arden broke the silence. "Nathaniel! I'm back!"

"I hope he doesn't think I'm joining." Ariana thought to herself.

Nathaniel rushed to the door. "Thank goodness!" He wrapped his arms around Ariana suddenly.

"I w-was so worried!"

"Well I arrived home after the building started burning." Ariana said quietly.

"She was roaming around when I found her." Arden followed up.

"I'm… just glad you're safe Ariana…" Nathaniel kept the embrace. Ariana decided to continue it and wrap her arms around him.

"I want you to be safe… I don't know how I'd live with myself If something Happened!" He looked as though He was on the verge of tears. "Do you want to stay with The Dragon's claw? This organization is a safe haven for ghouls, and as the owner I intend to keep it that way.

Ariana didn't know what to say. She still wasn't comfortable with this idea of gangs but after what Nathaniel said about what would happen if she was hurt stumped her.

"You'll be safe here… I'll make sure of it…"

Currently Ariana found herself in a conflict. Her mind was telling her not to join but something her heart was telling to join. Before she registered was she was going to say she blurted out. "Yes I'm here to join."

 **AN:Ender: Boo! I bet you were expecting animefan, but was me Ender!, anyway this chapter is done, we had fun with this one, and just a side note: Pay attention to details :3 see you guys next time!**

 **Hi it's me animefan now. I'm glad how this turned out. Ender summed everything up pretty well already. See you next chapter.**


	6. Meeting the Gang

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Ghoul.**

"Yes I'm here to join." The phrase resonated in Ariana's mind. What was she thinking? But now here she was in her room. Her room in her new gang's hideout. The one thing she was trying to avoid. "Was this really a last resort for me?"

There was a knock on Ariana's door "hey, Ariana, It's time to eat If you're hungry, The group has a new haul of meat." Arden called from the other side of the door.

Ariana wasn't that hungry she had to admit, but she did decide to to join this gang so she might as well get to know some of the other members. "Alright I'll be out in a minute."

A moment later Ariana opened the door and walked out. Arden stood there was a small smile.

"You can meet the other captain. He's a fun guy."

"Okay then." Ariana spoke quietly. She the followed Arden downstairs to where everyone else was. There were about 3 bodies, a fair sized pile of meat. Ariana could see how this could feed a gang for a day maybe. This probably was a rare event for the gang who had roughly seventy members.

There was a shortish ghoul with a mask on that looked like space was overseeing the smaller child ghouls with an eyeball in hand.

"Hey Ross, I want you to meet Ariana, She's a new recruit." Arden introduced Ariana.

"Hello Ross." Ariana said with a small wave.

"Welcome aboard, I'm the Galaxy ghoul."

"I don't know what my ghoul name is." Ariana admitted.

"Well an alias isn't important, we don't need the doves on us quite yet" Ross chuckled.

"I'm not in the mood to think about them yet." Ariana said quietly.

"Ahh… Bad experience with the doves?"

"I guess you could say that."

"We've all had our scuffles With the CCG, they're evil in my honest opinion" He admitted.

"Well, it wasn't really a scuffle. They didn't even fight me or even knew i was a ghoul."

"They don't have to in order to cause damage" Ross sighed

"I guess you're right about that." Ariana hung her head down.

"Our organization's Captains have had some kind of falling out with the CCG, take Arden for example, she was sent to cochlea and had quite a hard time there. I have this scar on my side from the Doves. Or look at Nathaniel's example, He lost his dad to the CCG, and His mom went missing soon after." Ross explained this all kinda slow, sounding pained to even mention the doves.

Ariana stood back. She could understand Ross' pain. She had just lost everything to the doves and she really wanted to get the subject off her mind.

"Nathaniel's hate Is probably the strongest out of all of us. He takes them on with prejudice"

Ross sighed.

Ariana still didn't say anything.

Ross went back to looking after the little ghouls who Ariana noticed had masks that stuck to the space theme.

"These must be the orphans." Ariana thought to herself. "Wonder why they all have the same masks?"

"Alright star children, the wolf pups are coming through soon, Let's go"

The children all grouped with Ross after he finished speaking.

"So the captains have followers with similar masks?" Ariana asked herself.

"Well you can read a room well" Ross smiled.

"Oh you heard that." Ariana rubbed the back of head in embarrassment.

"These are the small children from the group the Star children, If you go for a Captain, there will be ghouls small and large assigned to you for you to command. Usually they'll be the same kagune type as you, or have the same abilities."

"I've barely been here a day." Ariana pointed out. "I don't think I could a captain."

"Well Nathaniel has taken a liking to your company so you might have an advantage, and you did save him." Ross responded.

"I'm not sure I could take the spot right away."

"It's pretty easy to keep in order, once you take a couple of days to understand it"

Ross commented.

"I'll consider it." Ariana said not wanting a repeat of what happened with Arden.

"Alright, keep it in mind. We've down a Captain since we started, just a lot of orphans. We pick any ghoul orphan up where they are. "

Just then, a ghoul, fair age barged into the room. He took a second to catch his breath, then at the top of his lungs he yelled:

"DOVES INCOMING!"

The word echoed in the room for only a second before the room exploded into action

"STAR SQUAD ON ME!" Ross roared out

"WOLF PACK OVER HERE!" Arden shouted

Groups formed up as small children were grouped up and gathered in rooms with guards grouping up.

"What do I do?!" Ariana asked in panic. She did not want this to happen on her first night, especially when she didn't want to be here in the first place.

"Do what you want. Fight, run, kill, whatever. I'm going out for the kill"

Nathaniel said as he walked by Ariana and put on his fanged mask with the zipper mouth. His gaze had turned cold and piercing, like 2 knives, sitting next to each other in his glance.

Not sure what to do Ariana put her mask on. Worried for everyone she ran out to join them.

Sure enough, there was a squad of doves, probably first class who were fighting the two ghoul squads who were already out

Ross ran in and deployed his kagune. It was an ukaku space like structure on his back.

His team followed him in as they charged a group of them.

Nathaniel stayed back and watched for a bit until the associate special investigators arrived. Ariana soon recognized one of the investigators in the fight. It was Stephen. He ran in trying to avoid most of the combat, but once a ghoul charged him, he activated one of his two briefcases. Revealing a custom Quinque steel shotgun. He fired and blew away the ghoul that attacked him, he of course backed off after that, but was eventually surrounded, he then activated the other briefcase, which extended into a long staff with 3 rinkaku tendrils on one side and a kokaku scythe head on the other side. He swept in a large circle, killing or cutting many of the ghouls

"Crap! Get back" one of the ghouls yelled. Soon after the ghouls were in full retreat. Ariana quickly followed them, hoping that no one saw her.

Ariana soon started gasping for air as soon as she was inside. Everyone seemed to make it in okay but she couldn't tell with a hundred percent certainty that everyone was there. She could at least see Ross and Arden along with many of their subordinates.

Just then, everything went quiet.

BANG!

The blocked door flew open as an investigator walked in, she had only one briefcase. A few ghouls jumped at her and she batted them back with her briefcase. She then activated it and a two sided spear quinque jumped out of the more ghouls including Arden tried to pounce on her

The double spear began to change shape and spikes emerged from the spearheads.

The two others were shot with about 6 each, Arden was lucky only taking 4. The other two died instantly, going limp, Arden screamed and ran her tail at the investigator. The investigator spun the now staff like Quinque as the spikes retracted and she cut Arden's kagune in half.

"AUGH!" Arden spat blood and fell to her knees

The investigator went in for a finishing blow, but before she could a giant piece of rubble separated her and the ghouls

Nathaniel stood on a ledge about 2 floors above them, his magenta tendrils driving into the wall throwing rather large chunks of the building

"DISPERSE!" Nathaniel shouted. The ghouls retreated immediately after the order. Ross grabbed Ariana by the waist and ran with her and Arden on both of his shoulders.

Arden was conscious but in shock. Ross jumped up and started hopping from building to building as his squad caught up.

As they left, they heard an ear splitting screech, then four explosions rang out.

Nathaniel caught up a few seconds later

"How are they?"

"Arden's seen worse days"

"Well at least they're ok…"

Arden violently gestured at the hole torn in her gut, trying not to scream or vomit from the pain.

"What a welcome." Ariana said sarcastically.

Nathaniel looked darkly backwards towards the CCG helicopter that started to pursue them.

"The welcoming party isn't gone yet…" Nathaniel replied.

"Whoopie." Ariana said defeated.

Nathaniel turned and dug His tentacles into the ground and threw a chunk of a building at the helicopter. The helicopter crashed and exploded. Nathaniel then turned around and caught back up and grabbed Ariana from Ross

"That should lighten the load Ross!" Nathaniel said to Ross.

"Thanks!" Ross nodded then shot ahead

"How did you do that?" Ariana practically shouted.

"Lots of practice!" Nathaniel replied. "We have a rendezvous point nearby, we'll be there soon if you want to sleep or something!"

"I've had a rough day." Ariana said a bit tired.

Nathaniel patted her back as he ran.

The rendezvous point was a small house, I was very inconspicuous and ideal for laying low.

Nathaniel carried Ariana up to a bedroom and laid her down gently. He patted her head

"Sorry that we had to be targeted, did they see your face?"

"No, I put my mask on before I went out there."

"Ok. That's good at least."

Arden could be heard groaning in pain downstairs

"Ok Arden, just eat a good meal and you'll probably be fine" Ross said calmly.

"I want to rip the CCG to shreds." Arden said but with pain still highly present in her voice.

Ariana slowly took her mask off in hopes to fall asleep easier. She was very tired. This was her life now. She didn't want it to be but it was. Gangs, consistent CCG raids, and fights were going to be the norm now.

Nathaniel walked out of the room and went outside to think after taking his mask off.

Nathaniel sat out on the balcony. His phone rang and he answered. "Hey. No Okazi we're fine. Ok, you can show up whenever you want… see you…"

He hung up and sighed. "This was the worst night for this to happen… I still need to find out if you're alive, Mom…"

 **AN:Ender: Hoi! I'm here again! I think I might encourage animefan for us to start to write longer chapters, Your thought's animefan?**

 **Anime: Well this just happened to be longer and you wrote most of the action scenes. We could try to make them longer**

 **E: I like detail! X3**

 **Both: See you next time!**


	7. Aftermath of the CCG

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo ghoul.**

The next morning was a bit bleak, with the group in fragments and a captain injured. The air seemed to give a somber feel around the building.

Arden was resting on the couch watching the news, the raid on their base had shown up.

"I'd say the death count is about 12" Arden said gravely. Nathaniel took a grim look to the sentence.

Ariana entered the room. Her face gave off a feeling of tiredness. She had some trouble falling asleep the previous night. She quietly sat down with the other members.

Ross laid a cup of coffee on the table for everyone with preferences of each person in mind: a dash of milk for Arden, strong and black coffee for Nathaniel, then took a guess for Ariana and made her coffee like Arden's.

"Thank you." Ariana said taking the coffee. She took a sip of it. It tasted different than what she normally drank but it was alright.

"Sorry it may not be your exact preference, I just kinda guessed, most ghouls take it with a dash of milk."

After breakfast, Nathaniel talked strategy with everyone and how and when they were going to meet in about a week.

"I like the look of the tower right here." Nathaniel said, pointing to a spot on the map "we'll raid there, it'll be our new base."

"Do you change bases a lot?" Ariana asked a bit confused.

"No actually, this is the first time…" he responded.

"Oh." Ariana looked away a bit embarrassed.

"Don't worry, this was thought to happen anyway. This location is safe… at least I think.." Nathaniel tried to reassure Ariana.

"You think!" If Ariana still had coffee she would have done a spit take.

Nathaniel tried to keep a strong leadership physique, but was starting to show signs of cracking under pressure.

Arden quickly intervened. "I know a guy I could call in for a favor."

"I've also called on Okazi, he'll help us out." Nathaniel responded

"Roxanne is probably busy." Ariana mumbled to herself.

Arden leaned over to respond to Ariana's mumbled statement "if she's good at fighting you should call her up, this is an all hands on deck situation."

"Dah!" Ariana nearly fell over. "Why do you keep hearing my statements?"

"Well we're both ghouls silly!" Arden teased. Arden then sniffed the air "also, you smell pretty nasty too, we all do at this point." Arden smiled deviously and stuck her tongue out playfully.

"A shower wouldn't hurt." Ariana thought to herself as she laid down.

Nathaniel stood up and headed upstairs.

"Well someone took heed of my words" Arden said jokingly. "I'm next!"

Ross put his head on his hand and chuckled. "Fine, I'll go after you then."

Nathaniel walked out with a pair of jeans on but no shirt "Ariana do you want first dibs?"

"Oh, no you take it." Ariana said to him, still laying down.

"Okay, just checking." He replied as he walked into the shower again.

Arden playfully wolf whistled at Nathaniel as he walked away, he rolled his eyes at her.

"He has no shirt on what's the big deal." Ariana said bluntly, not looking at Nathaniel.

Arden gestured up at Nathaniel who was staring at at the tv currently looking for death tolls again.

"Woah he has a six pack!" Ariana said after she sat up.

Arden laughed at the comment so hard she snorted.

"Yeah!" Arden said still laughing.

"Roxanne is not going to believe it."

Nathaniel finally walked into the bathroom and everyone else watched the tv again for the news.

* * *

Later in the morning Ariana walked out of the bathroom. She decided to go last out of everyone. Since she was technically the newbie it only made sense for her to go last.

"So… Ariana… have you taken interest in the captain position? We really need another captain and you seem skilled." Nathaniel offered up.

"You can recruit that Roxanne girl to be a member too." Arden added.

"One, Roxanne doesn't join gangs because she has ties with a couple of them. Two, the past twenty four hours have been really crazy for me so I haven't been able to."

Arden scrunched her face at the word gang.

"Okay, one, please just call us an organization, two, we don't have many options or time, so please decide fast."

"I'm not good at fast decisions."

Nathaniel intervened. "Arden, we have time, but I do agree that options are limited…"

"She decided on joining us pretty fast, so I'm sure she can make this one." Arden retorted. "She wasn't even going to join until you asked."

Arden crossed her arms after she added the last part.

Ross was off to the side simply spectating The whole situation.

Nathaniel paused and looked at Ariana "you… are only here… because I asked?" He looked a bit troubled by that statement. "I don't want to force you to be here…"

Before she could answer a knock was heard at the door

"Okazi? He's… early?" Nathaniel questioned.

Ariana sighed in relief. She had no idea how to respond to Nathaniel's question. She turned her back to the group.

The door was then kicked open violently and a man in a grey suit with a bowler hat came in "oh my, did I interrupt?" He smiled wickedly.

"Why do I have the feeling Arden invited him over." Ariana said not caring if anyone heard.

"I didn't." Arden had started to back up slowly and looked very serious expression on her face.

"Oh! Where are my manners? My name is first class investigator Kuga Kenshi."

He then activated his briefcase to reveal a claw like Quinque and then a three pronged bikaku kagune shot from his back "I'm also a member of the Quinx squad."

In panic Ariana cover her face and bolted. Quickly she cover her face with her mask.

"Don't worry I'm not here for anyone…" he then pointed to Nathaniel "except you…"

Nathaniel looked terrified "Kuga Kenshi… the John Doe collector…"

"That's right my friend… I'll make sure you're my Quinque before I write a report. Two birds with one stone…" he never let his smile shrink, in fact it only widened.

He grabbed Nathaniel "any objections?" He growled as he pointed his kagune at them.

Ariana turned to face the Quinx. If they were going to battle them she wanted or more likely felt like she needed to be a part of it.

Kuga took precautions and shot the Quinque toward Ross, who was smashed against the wall and knocked unconscious. He then faced Ariana.

Ariana got into a fighting position, she was ready.

He smiled "you? against me? Ha! What could you have to beat me?! He laughed.

Nathaniel struggled to get free, but was foiled when he was bashed on the head with the Quinque base and knocked out.

"Now where were we?" Kuga growled as he aimed the Quinque at Ariana.

"Not the kokaku." Ariana thought to herself but did her best to hide her fear.

Before Ariana moved he threw a silver canister at her feet. The label read CRC.

Before Ariana could react fully the canister sprayed gas everywhere until the room was filled with gas. Ariana felt her kagune withering.

"Well, I must be off, goodbye!" Kuga waved and left with Nathaniel over his shoulder.

"No!" Ariana said close to tears. She had no way of fighting and instead collapsed on the floor.

Arden picked Ross up and laid him on the couch "Oh, crap…"

"Is he alright?" Ariana asked turning to Arden .

"He's fine, I'm talking about Nathaniel though…"

"See this is why I didn't want to do gangs. Like my mom said you always end up in trouble every day." Ariana sounded very upset.

"Well… did you mom ever tell you that if your gang is loyal, they'll bail you out?" Arden put her mask on

"That's not what happened to her." Ariana replied

"Well that's what we're gonna do…"

 **AN:Ender:ok.. so 2000 was a bit too big of a word count goal, but I think this story is UNRAVELING perfectly! *badum tss!***

 **Anime: Oh you. Well you never know maybe one day we'll make 2000.**

 **Ender:THE CLIFFHANGER THOUGH! Will they save him? Will they not?**

 **Anime: DUN DUN DUN! Everyone's worst fear.**

 **We'll seeya next chapter!**


	8. The Raid

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo ghoul.**

Nathaniel woke up. It was dark, the room seemed small and he felt as if the air was choking him. He coughed but the air felt heavy, the floor felt cold as if made of metal, he looked down and saw blood dried to the floor

"Ah… your finally awake… now we can begin…" Kuga took out a large pair of clamps "you know… I tried this out on another ghoul once… he escaped though. I was very sad… but now you're here! Let's see if my technique works on you! Now I want you to stay still while I prepare…" he pulled out a needle.

" _AHRRGHH!"_

* * *

Two ghouls whom Ariana had never met before had arrived at base.

One word a samurai mask and a long coat who was talking to Arden, the other wore a skull mask and black robes.

The one with the skull mask came up to Ariana and spoke to her.

"Hey, I'm Okazi. You're Ariana right? Nathaniel told me a lot about you…"

Okazi smiled as he reached his hand out for Ariana's.

Ariana took it. "It's nice to meet you Okazi."

Arden gestured to the other ghoul. "This is my friend Jaden."

She then turned to Ross and Arden. "I suppose since you're down a captain and leader you want me to take a role."

They looked at each other and all started to nod.

Arden looked at her in a bit of a begging way. "We're gonna need you…"

"Then sign me up for captain." Ariana made her second big decision in two days.

Ross smiled. "I'll radio in for a new team to be made, Nathaniel actually has masks with your moon theme on mind, he made them himself." Ross walked to a radio that was on the counter and called in to other fragments of the group.

* * *

The group captains each had radios, Arden radioed in to Ariana.

"Ready to go?"

"Yes." Ariana said into hers.

Her new group stood behind her, all sticking to the theme of night.

"Ma'am, we're ready for orders."

"Thanks." She paused in front of the ghoul. "I'm going to call you Nyx. If that's alright."

"Yes ma'am, that's ok with me"

"Alright Children of the Night. Let's move out."

The groups each took a position around cochlea ready to attack and then dove in together at the same time.

They got in and immediately took on doves, the squads split up from there, letting Arden's squad deal with the ones outside.

The other squads broke in and an alarm started to blare. Ross' squad jumped to the control tower and went to take control of it.

The other ghoul and Okazi grouped with Ariana as an assault team.

The Children of the Night went into formation before attacking with their kagune at a group of doves.

They all got deeper and deeper into the complex until they were surrounded by doves.

Ariana summoned her ukaku and started attacking.

Before she could a rain of shards mowed down the doves.

Ariana looked up and saw a black haired woman who was wrapped in cloth and had only one kakugan, she had 2 ukaku wing which resembled crescents.

"Who is it that?" She whispered to herself. She turn to some of her nearby squad. "Do any of you know?"

"She's a savior, just mark her off as a friend." The other troops were already starting to move down again.

The woman looked at them as they departed then went down a separate way.

The Dragon Claw members continued running. The members at the edge of the group kept look out for any CCG members that might appear out of nowhere.

They met up with a group of familiar Doves, and two familiar leaders, the two special investigators, Stephen and the other woman.

"I'll let you handle them Mischelle.

The Mischelle stepped forward for another fight with the dragon's claw organization, but before that could happen the mummified woman got between them.

"I think I'll take you first" she gritted her teeth and deployed her ukaku crescents.

Mischelle sighed "fine" she activated her Quinque and went for an attack but wasn't fast enough, the woman was in her face and punched her hard in the stomach. Michelle was thrown back by the sheer force of the punch.

"The one eyed mummy…" Stephen said standing still in shock and awe.

"Woah." was the only thing Ariana could say. She still didn't see why the CCG had to burn down her house for this ghoul.

The One eyed Mummy looked at the dragon's claw group, only one eye glowing as she said in a ghastly voice. "Go…"

In a flash, the Dragon Claw went in another direction.

"Any know where Nathaniel is?" Ariana asked over radio.

There was a crackle on the radio, Ross answered "he's on the bottom floor, in the interrogation section." Ross let go of the head of an investigator who he had killed and was looking at the computers and levers, he flipped the switches and started to unlock cells.

"Twilight." Ariana called to one of the Children of the Night. "How many more floors do we to go down?"

"I say about three." A young female ghoul answered.

A deafening boom followed her response from somewhere about 3 floors down

"Let's move it!" Ariana started to lead the Children of the Night downwards.

"Yes ma'am!" They responded as they followed her.

They went down three levels and found the interrogation block, there were also a ton of fugitive ghouls who were stampeding out and attacking the CCG where they were found.

"Galaxy." Ariana radioed in. "We're on the bottom floor. Where is the Viper's cell? If you know."

"Cell S25." Ross responded.

"Stop!" Stephen pointed his scythe like end of his Quinque toward the group.

"Nyx lead the attack." Ariana ordered

"Yes ma'am." The female ghoul answered.

Stephen used the tendrils on his Quinque to catch Nyx and two others and throw them and charged forward firing his qbullet shotgun, spraying qbullets toward them.

"You alright Nyx?" A male ghoul called as she hasn't risen up.

"I'm fine Photebor." She answered standing up.

The one eyed mummy once again showed up and blocked with her kagune and then returned fire with her shards.

Michelle walked in but was covered in blood, her own she still rose her Quinque and challenged the one eyed mummy again

The one eyed mummy scoffed

"You can't fight me in your state. Surrender, I'm not hungry right now…"

Michelle looked at her options and fell to her knees from lack of blood.

The one eyed mummy walked past them, Stephen knew he had no options so he picked up Michelle and retreated.

"She's good." Photebor said in awe.

The Mummy turned to the team. "I think you can handle things from here…"

Ariana nodded and motioned for them to move. The team then dispersed to cover more ground.

"Cell S25. Cell S25." Ariana kept repeating to herself.

"You alright ma'am?" Nyx asked to her right.

"I'm alright Nyx. We can't lose The Viper's cell number."

They eventually reached cell S25, but the doorway was destroyed.

Summoning her Ukaku Ariana approached it. When she saw the inside she had to step back. Nathaniel was nowhere to be seen and Kuga was dead with pierce holes all over his body. She motioned for Nyx, Photebus and another male ghoul named Kuk to follow her. Arden also walked in.

"Woah, nice kill."

"That wasn't me."

 **AN: Hi it's animefan here. We haven't reached 2000 in a chapter yet but we'll get there. If you couldn't tell all of the Children of the Night have names dealing with nighttime, like gods or words dealing with it. See you next chapter.**


	9. The Phantom

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo ghoul**

The fight out was easier than the fight in, due to all the Doves being dead or exhausted from fighting. A few ghouls were dead, but mostly a little tired was all.

Arden freaked out at the house over the mission. "Was it for nothing then!? We're screwed! Our leader is gone! We're all dead!"

Ross worked on calming Arden as she broke down. "We'll be ok… we just need to keep trying things to find him."

The one eyed mummy assisted the injured out until they got to the base, she then sat down silently and unwrapped her face. She looked towards Ariana.

"Don't worry Arden, we'll find him." Ariana said hoping to make Arden feel better.

The mummy stood up.

"He's out there, I have a feeling." She said in a ghastly voice.

"Do you have his scent?" Ariana asked.

"I know his scent, I know it well…"

Everyone didn't want to ask what she meant by that statement.

"Let's try to spread out and look around, we can tell each other if we find him." She suggested.

"Take this." Arden handed the mummy a radio. "For when you find him."

Ariana was surprised Arden didn't break down during that statement.

The mummy held out a radio and an ear piece. "It's fine, I have my own."

Where she got that from Ariana had no idea.

They all took separate directions to cover for a few days.

* * *

Ariana walked around the 10th ward. She had a hunch that Nathaniel would try to hide in a different ward. Since she used to live here it seemed like a good place to start.

There was a tv news report that a ghoul with a phantom like mask was attacking CCG agents, and seemed to exclusively target them. "The CCG has said he wears a black cloak and avoids civilians." The broadcaster on the news said.

"Uh oh this could cause a problem." Ariana said aloud.

"I know ghouls are so scary." A high school girl shivered as the story continued.

"They are." Ariana pretended to agree.

"I'd better get home before it gets dark." The girl said before leaving.

"I've never seen this ghoul before." Ariana thought to herself. "Maybe Roxanne knows."

Ariana knocked on her friend's door. She hadn't been able to talk to her in a few days. Boy was she in for a big surprise.

"Hey Ariana." Roxanne greeted her. "Haven't seen you around come in."

Ariana sat on the couch as Roxanne brought out some meat and coffee.

"Freshly caught today." She boasted.

"Thank you." Ariana said taking a plate.

"So have you seen the news?" Roxanne asked taking a sip of coffee.

"I have, do you have any idea who this ghoul is?"

"Pssh no, girl do you expect me to know everything?"

"Well you have ties with a lot of gangs so there could be something."

"Not that I heard of. Probably just some loner who thinks he's in an organization."

"You're probably right." Ariana took a bite of the meat.

Just then her phone buzzed.

 _I have a hunch he's in the 10th ward near you._

It was from the mummy. Ariana wasn't expecting a text from her soon. They had exchanged numbers prior but she was in shock that their was already news on Nathaniel already. Still she had to give a sigh of relief. She finally had some hope.

"Who was that from?" Roxanne asked.

"Part of a search party for a ghoul I know." Ariana answered.

"Don't tell me it's that boy again" Roxanne said playfully.

"It is." Ariana admitted a bit embarrassed.

"Ohhhhh! Go get em them! And bring him home!" Roxanne patted Ariana on the back.

"Well there's something else you should know." Arianna said quietly.

"What's up?" She asked while sipping "wine", it was almost obvious it was blood.

"He's the leader of my new gang."

Roxanne spat a bit of her drink in surprise. "You finally joined a gang?" She tried to clean her shirt.

"It was spur of the moment I even had to step up to captain."

"Woah! For real?! This is huge! I gotta tell some people!" She picked up her phone and started texting.

"But that was after Nathaniel disappeared."

"Still though!"

They heard footfalls from the roof, like someone ran onto it then jumped. Ariana immediately ran outside to see what happened. But no one was there, in the distance however, she saw a figure jumping from roof to roof.

"Who is that?" Ariana asked herself.

She looked at the ground and saw CCG agents who had been sharded to death.

"Whoever this is they are one strong ghoul." Ariana said walking over towards them.

The ghoul seemed to have heard the footsteps and started to run faster.

"Did they think I was going to take their food or something?" Ariana thought to herself.

The ghoul looked back and Ariana saw a mask on his face. It was white, with a grim look and sharp teeth on it. The ghoul jumped up to a building and jumped again from the wall.

"I will find out who this ghoul is. I have to inform everyone first." Ariana paused. "Maybe I'll catch him first."

Quickly jumping on a building Ariana saw the silhouette of the ghoul she was after.

The ghoul started moving in different directions, getting around buildings and taking mixed up routes. Ariana ran after him the best she could. She thought her being an ukaku would give her an advantage. But the other ghoul's constant changing of direction proved to give her a challenge. In order to increase her chance Ariana slipped on her mask and deployed her ukaku.

The ghoul turned and he jumped back around deploying an ukaku as well, it was two blue crescents, they seemed familiar.

"Seriously he's also an ukaku." Ariana thought to herself annoyed.

He did a backflip and jumped behind Ariana, the roles had reversed, the ghoul was now chasing Ariana.

"Why are you chasing me?" Ariana called out.

The Ghoul did not respond, he only pursued her and was gaining.

"I have to get out of here." Ariana thought to herself. Jumping off the next building Ariana tried to glide herself away from the rogue ghoul.

The ghoul stopped at the edge of the building, he paused and darted the other way.

"Phew that was close." Ariana sighed in relief. "Who knows what he would have done if he actually caught me..."

Fearing what she had to do, She removed her mask and dialed a number on her phone.

* * *

"Alright, well there's no need to worry, they seem to be after something else, or even each other." Stephen wrote down some things on his notepad.

"Thank you." Ariana said relieved as she took a bite of a pastry. "I was so worried that something was going on with the ghouls when I saw them last night."

"This kind of activity is highly suspicious. We'll keep an eye out, especially for the phantom."

"What's the phantom?" Ariana asked in genuine curiosity.

"The ghoul you described to me, along with the midnight." He sipped a cup of tea. "It's weird, the midnight actually took part in a raid on cochlea."

"My name is Midnight." She thought to herself before saying aloud. "A raid on cochlea? that doesn't sound good."

Stephen gestured to a bandaged scar on his arm. "I was there. It was nasty, the one eyed mummy showed up too."

"Are you alright?" Ariana asked looking concerned.

"Oh! I'm fine! " he waved his hand and smiled.

"It looks bad."

"I've been through worse!" he chuckled.

"Oh my!"

He got up "well I should get to the office. Hope to see you again!" he walked away and waved.

"Bye Stephen." Ariana said before walking out herself.

* * *

After regurgitating the pastry she ate Ariana sat in her room in the base. She was thinking of assembling the Children of the Night for an emergency meeting but she doubted they would have any new information. She had also hoped that her going for coffee with Stephen would lead her to some new information.

"So do they have him?" Ariana jumped back a bit as Arden walked in.

"Who has him?" Ariana asked confused.

"The CCG! Do they have Nathaniel?" Arden clarified. "I know you met with one."

"Sadly he didn't mention recapturing Nathaniel, so I don't think so."

"So it was pointless. You risked your life for nothing."

"No, I found out I'm called Midnight and the they're after the Phantom ghoul."

"I'd figured the last part."

"But this could work. If I keep meeting with him maybe I could get some information out of him. Or least get the CCG off our trail."

"Having to deal with fewer of them would be nice." Arden admitted. "But how are you going to do that?"

"It will be a hard process but maybe if I give him enough misinformation it will lead the CCG off us."

Four ghouls came in, unknown to Ariana and stood like soldiers to Arden.

"Miss, Nathaniel has not been located yet, but we're still searching"

"Ok, when are you going back out?"

"In an hour, we'll spare no time."

"Alright. You're the shot callers, I'm not your captain" Arden nodded.

The four ghouls took a room and closed the door behind them

"Some of the Wolf Pups?" Ariana assumed.

"No, those are the Venom Eggs, Nathaniel's group. They consist of hybrids, premature kakujas, and a one eye.

"A one eye." Ariana said in shock.

"Yep" Arden leaned on the wall.

"Do you think we should search for him?" Ariana asked.

"Of course, why wouldn't we? Arden tilted her head.

"I mean now?"

Arden glanced out the window, the sun was starting to set. "Sure, it seems like a good time." Arden put her mask and coat on.

The two ghouls walked outside. Both were wearing their masks and ready to find their leader.

In the distance a cloaked figure dashed by. It looked like the same ghoul Ariana saw the other night.

"It's the phantom." Ariana said aloud.

"I like to call him news hogger, which is good for us. Less CCG on our trail." Arden joked with a laugh.

"You're starting to remind me of Roxanne, she calls Nathaniel Almost Dead Guy." Arden laughed after Ariana said that.

The phantom saw them and dashed at them, but at the last second, he jumped over them.

"Stay right where you are I have a question for you!" Arden barked before the Phantom ran away.

He definitely heard them but was not in the mood to answer most likely. Arden started chasing him with Ariana closely behind.

"Careful he's an ukaku." Ariana warned as Arden still gave chase. "I hope she heard me."

Arden activated her bikaku and pursued the phantom. She went in for an attack but the phantom was fast and evaded before landing his foot against her chest with only enough force to push her away.

"Arden are you okay?" Ariana asked running over.

"I am but that guy is a jerk. Now I want to get him."

"I'm not sure that's a good idea."

Arden yelled and shot her bikaku at the phantom again, again the phantom dodged, but this time he used his hand and force palmed her in the stomach. Arden was knocked back and hit the wall before throwing up a bit.

"Argh! Ok… I know when to call quits." Arden looked towards Ariana, thinking she would probably stand a better chance against the phantom.

"I'll try." Ariana told Arden before charging at the phantom.

The phantom was on the evasive, ready to dodge any attack she may throw at him.

Ariana deployed her ukaku even though she knew the phantom was the same kagune as her. It never hurt to be prepared.

The phantom stared at her in silence and shook his head and deployed his kagune, the two blue crescents. At that moment Ariana was sure she'd seen those before.

Ariana immediately jumped into the air and shot her spikes at the phantom. The phantom dodged the spikes swiftly but didn't shoot any of his own.

He beat his wings and jumped to a building a bit higher. Ariana landed before jumping on the building herself.

He aimed the crescents at Ariana like scythes, implying to back off.

"I don't want to hurt you." Ariana told him hoping he wouldn't attack.

"That makes two of us…" the phantom replied.

"Were you at the raid of Cochlea a few months ago?" Ariana asked him to gain information.

"You could say that…" he replied.

"You better not be threatening Dragon's Claw." Ariana slowly moved her ukaku to strike.

"If I was you'd know, but trust me quite the contrary." The phantom's crescents started to change form, they changed into two blades connected like two dragon wings.

"You have two kagune." Ariana whispered putting her own back in fear.

"They aren't mine…" he reverted the blades back into crescents and walked toward her.

Just then someone landed behind Ariana.

Ariana saw two blue crescents, identical to the phantom.

The mummy emerged from the shadows.

"M- my baby boy…"

The phantom removed his mask, revealing a silver-white streak of hair, it was Nathaniel. "Mom?"

 **AN: Ender: Woo! Two thousand! VICTORY! And cliffy hangy again! Kaboom!**

 **Anime: It took awhile but it was worth it to finally make a 2k chapter. Lots of stuff going on in story so that's good. See you next chapter.**


	10. Return

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Ghoul**

Ariana didn't know how to react. Nathaniel was not only alive but he was also the mummy's son. She had so many questions going through her head.

The mummy embraced her son and Nathaniel returned the embrace.

"I found where you were hiding mom." He smiled as tears of joy ran down his face.

"You're not an ukaku." Ariana said as it was the first thing to pop into her head.

Nathaniel glanced at his back and looked at her he walked toward her as he manifested four magenta tentacles and then his ukaku started to change again, but this time it transformed into two ukaku armored blades that looked a bit like armored tentacles and spread them behind him. "I am both an ukaku and a rinkaku I guess…" he smiled at her.

At that moment Ariana hugged him and started crying. "I thought you were dead."

He smiled and hugged her back "I did too for awhile… Kuga did horrible things to me." Nathaniel's white streak blew in the wind and he cracked his pointer finger with his thumb.

"What happened?" She whispered.

"Try to imagine torture in a horror movie, It was like that…" he hugged her tight as his eyes watered. "All I remember was he kept asking me the same question as he tortured me then suddenly alarms started blaring and I broke out… Kuga charged towards me and I started to shoot shards at him until he stopped moving…"

He dropped to his knees still hugging Ariana.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that." Ariana refused to let go of Nathaniel.

The mummy left to get Arden and bring her inside, as well as let Nathaniel and Ariana catch up.

"I'm just glad you're alright."

Nathaniel lifted Ariana's head and wiped away some of her tears. "I'm glad you are too."

"I was so worried." Ariana started crying harder.

"I'm sorry." Nathaniel told her wiping away more tears. "I should have given you guys something to tell you but I had no time or choices."

Ariana put her head on his chest. "I forgive you. I just really missed you."

At that moment Nathaniel gently cupped Ariana's head with his hands. After wiping away a few more tears he kissed her. Ariana's eyes were wide open at first but she quickly closed them. They had no idea how long they kissed for but they didn't care.

"I love you Ariana." Nathaniel said afterwards.

"I love you too Nathaniel." Ariana said before embracing him again.

Nathaniel kissed her head before saying. "I'll always protect you."

* * *

When they got back inside Ariana went in first and Nathaniel followed, Arden moved around Ariana and went to punch Nathaniel in the face, Nathaniel almost instantly reacted and caught her punch.

"What the hell dude! You kicked my ass and I didn't even know it was you! How did you even get that fast?!" Arden yelled at him.

"I know, I should explain myself…"

Nathaniel made coffee for everyone and sat down to explain.

"The phantom was… a distraction for the CCG… I was trying to bring the CCG away from you guys."

"Then why didn't you tell us? And why'd you beat the crap outta me!?" Arden barked.

"I was telling you to back off"

"Then why'd you treat Ariana differently?"

The blood rushed to Nathaniel's face. "That was… a different story…"

The mummy smiled. "I didn't know you had your Father's kagune or my kagune, and you even have your own, your father would be proud…" she smiled and looked down at her cup.

Nathaniel placed his cup down. "does everyone remember the plan before I was captured?"

"I do." Ariana said firmly.

Everyone one else nodded their heads.

Nathaniel smiled at them. "Then let's go get that tower."

* * *

The streets were only left lit by the lamps. The CCG were patrolling but they had not reached them yet, the teams stayed as a group as Nathaniel, Ariana, Arden, Ross, Okazi, and Jaden walked upfront, the mummy was tired from the searching as she had run into the doves and had a tough fight so she stayed home. The group approached slowly as a helicopter spotted them.

"Report! Ghouls are approaching!"

Michelle was there but Stephen had gone home early so it was only her but she still calmly took up a briefcase. Officers came outside with guns at the ready. The group still marched, things were starting to get tense.

"...FIRE!" a CCG officer called out before bullets started to fly

"Scatter!" Nathaniel yelled as he jumped while simultaneously deploying his two rinkaku tendrils.

Ariana deployed her ukaku and jumped away. Quickly she shot a barrage of spikes hitting some of the members. One of them was knocked to the ground.

The CCG was unrelenting as more men took the fallen men's places and proceeded to fire.

Ariana shot at them again. She was starting to get a little tired. But she couldn't let her team down.

"Focus on the midnight!" one of the officers screamed. More men turned to fire on Ariana. Ariana gulped she knew she couldn't keep shooting barrages at them or they capture her.

Before she could think a barrage of Q-bullets came to meet her. She flinched and frantically tried to hold out her hand, but something stood between her and the bullets. She looked up and saw the white streak. Nathaniel got in the way and froze.

"Viper." She whispered reaching out to him.

He started to walk forward and chuckle, his chuckle broke into a hysterical laugh.

"You doves think you can hurt me!?"

His rinkaku generated 4 tentacles and they looked grossly gooey. He wrapped them around each other and the kagune hardened into a large spiked tail. He then generated the dragon wing ukaku

A CCG agent looked at him in horror.

"Wait… is that…"

Nathaniel then generated a mask himself, it had two slits for his eyes and a red eye on top in the middle with horns on side. He exhaled from the slits, his breath looked riddled with RC cells.

"That was unexpected." Ariana whispered to herself.

Nathaniel snapped his fingers and four loud whistling sounds were heard, they sounded like divebombs. Sure enough four objects hit the ground very hard and five kagune sets shot toward the investigators.

Nathaniel walked forward and spread his wings and yelled, some men started running others were in fear. Michelle walked through the men and activated her quinque.

"That trick won't work on ME!" Nathaniel roared in a distorted voice.

"Double S rated wyvern? A kakuja?" Michelle called out to him.

"Close but not quite" He responded.

Michelle ignored his warning and used her spike shapeshift.

Nathaniel did not even try to evade it and it ran him through,he kept walking like nothing was there.

"I warned you…" Nathaniel's mask started to form a mouth which wore a toothy sinister grin and growled

"Shit…" Michelle took a step back starting to feel uncertain.

The venom eggs had wiped out all of the CCG in the building besides the helicopters and Michelle.

Nathaniel had walked until he was only a foot away from the investigator who was now aware of her predicament. He grabbed the spear and tore it out of her hands trying to gnaw on it.

"He's losing control…" Arden looked gravely towards him.

The kakuja then looked toward the investigator and roared.

Michelle grabbed two handles from on her back and deployed two different blades.

One looked like a sharp cleaver of a blade, the other looked lighter, like a crystal spike of a sword though.

Nathaniel charged toward her and in a flash of light they paused. One of Nathaniel's arms fell off, Michelle's shoulder sprayed blood.

Nathaniel was furious that he lost an arm and turned back towards her, two of the venom eggs ran up to try to restrain him, one deployed a rinkaku and a bikaku, the other used their brute strength as the other held him back, they both had trouble doing so.

A hail of gunfire stopped their efforts and Nathaniel jumped towards a helicopter and he grew a large arm out of the stump, it was a reddish color and looked like it didn't quite belong to him. He punched through the glass and threw one of the pilots out, he took the second pilot and ripped him in half and ate him. When he returned to the ground he looked at the helicopter he didn't attack, it was retreating, Michelle was gone too, she was presumed to have jumped into the helicopter as it left.

Nathaniel's kagune and mask deteriorated and he walked to the front steps to an elevation

"We… have won!" He shouted triumphantly, though he looked tired and hurt, his arm looked to be visibly regenerating however.

The organization erupted into cheers and then walked in

 **AN:Ender: hello peoples, sorry this was a bit shorter, I felt it was a good place to leave off.**

 **Animefan: Hopefully we don't have to change this story to romance. Just kidding we won't. Ender wrote most of this chapter. But I did write the kiss scene. If you don't know romance is kinda my thing. See you next chapter.**


	11. Fear and Love

**Disclaimer, I don't own Tokyo ghoul.**

"This building is ours!" Nathaniel shouted.

Dragon's Claw cheered as they entered the tower. Nathaniel entered, found the nearest piece of furniture, and fell on top of it and sighed. He rubbed the now healing stump of an arm "ouch…"

Ariana looked at Nathaniel. She was really horrified and shocked at the fact that he was a kakuja. She never thought one would be that close to her or that she was now dating one.

Ross walked over to Nathaniel and knelt down to talk to him. "So now a few more know…"

"That's a good thing in my opinion…"

"Won't she be scared of you?"

"Sometimes I'm scared of myself… if she is I don't blame her."

Nathaniel got up and walked over to Ariana. "I guess you know my dark secret…"

"I guess…" Ariana looked away.

"What are your thoughts?" Nathaniel looked a bit worried.

"You're a kakuja." Ariana whispered with a slight shiver.

"I'm sorry you had to find out this way…" Nathaniel looked ashamed.

"It's kind of terrifying." Ariana whispered not knowing if Nathaniel heard or not.

Nathaniel heard the comment and felt like he had been pierced through the heart. "I'll give you some space then…" he walked out of the room.

Ariana remained silent. She still had no idea what to make of the situation. Nathaniel being a kakuja scared her but she didn't want to lose him. She was in a situation she never thought she'd be in or wanted to be.

She walked through the building. She figured she should look around her new home. It look comfortable and safer than their old base. Then she paused."Oh my gosh Nathaniel didn't have an arm! How did I not realize this?"

* * *

Nathaniel sat on a rock that had flown in during the fight, he eyed the hole in his jacket. He suddenly felt queasy and his back stung. He grabbed his sides and his kagune lurched out and destroyed parts of the room behind him as he screamed in agony. His kagune was noticeably less solid and uncontrollably swinging everywhere.

Okazi walked up and tapped Ariana's shoulder. "Hey, have you seen Nathaniel?"

"He's missing an arm." Ariana whispered.

"I know, I saw it happen. I want to know where he is."

"I have no idea."

There was a thud above them. Okazi looked towards Ariana

"I'm going to investigate that…."

"Ok then." Ariana,said as he left. "I have to find Nathaniel and make sure he's alright."

Okazi gritted his teeth nervously. "Oh ok… um… g-good luck…" he tried to keep cool but it looked suspicious either way. He tried to walk out before Ariana could stop him.

"Why don't I come with you." Ariana suggested walking towards him. "You might need an extra kagune for whatever that was."

Okazi turned around nervously. "Uh-No! We should split up a-and cover more ground!" He said in a bit of a panic.

"I'm pretty sure it's only in one location. No need to split up."

Okazi took a deep breath. "I don't know if you want to see..." he warned.

"See what?" Ariana asked knowing she was on to something.

Okazi started to back up a bit. "There's a different world for fledgling kakujas… but in the end there is great power promised…"

"I'm not a kakuja." Ariana pointed out misinterpreting what Okazi said.

Okazi shook his head. "Not you, but the rest of us captains might be…" he tried to approach the situation tenderly.

"I just want to make sure Nathaniel's okay!" Ariana started to cry out of fear.

"Okay… but it might scare you…" Okazi looked towards the staircase.

Nathaniel was lying in the wreckage on the floor in obvious pain, he couldn't move much because of how fatigued he felt, he was so tired he paused regenerating his arm.

"You look like hell." Okazi didn't look shocked, he just laid a duffle bag on the floor and moved some of the debris.

"I know, it'll probably be fine after tomorrow…" Nathaniel tried to roll over but couldn't because he was still to tired. Okazi helped him up and handed him some food.

"The agents we killed should last a month, we gathered our own dead as well…"

"How many did we lose?"

"About 23."

Nathaniel looked at the ground sullenly hearing the news as he ate.

Ariana stood in the doorway. What she saw in front of her looked horrible. She wanted to run and hug Nathaniel and tell he'll be alright. But something was stopping her. She seemed to be in a battle between her fear and love.

* * *

The following morning Nathaniel called Ariana for a talk alone.

"You're arm grew back." Ariana said not knowing what else to.

Nathaniel looked at Ariana with a bit of a shame in his eye. "You're probably the only one of us who isn't a kakuja… I don't want you to ever feel afraid of us, so I thought I could try to bring it up to try to help you get to know and become more comfortable towards us…"

"Nathaniel I'm not scared of you just of the form." Ariana explained trying not to hurt his feelings.

He looked towards the window and he started to generate his mask and his dragon wing and tail kakuja kagune and hugged her, Ariana returned his embrace but realized he was turning her away from the window.

She looked up and realized he was shielding her from a missile that was headed for the building.

Ariana gasped. "Don't-"

The missile collided with the building and exploded 10 feet behind Nathaniel. They were both blown away and when Ariana's eyes opened again she was lying on a wall. She looked at Nathaniel, he was severely injured and his other arm was blown off along with his legs, he was lying motionless still wearing the now damaged kakuja mask.

"Nathaniel!" She cried out running over to his motionless body with tears pouring down her face. Nathaniel didn't respond. Ariana cried harder as a helicopter approached. "Please you can't be dead. I loved you too much to fear you. I can't lose you."

Ariana collapsed over Nathaniel's body.

Nathaniel slowly opened his exposed eye, he gently held his bleeding hand against her face before the eye closed and his arm dropped to the floor

Ariana continued to cry. She touched the blood on her cheek worried she'd accidently laid down on one of his wounds.

Soldiers from both sides were screaming orders as the CCG secondary squad advanced.

Okazi ran up and yelled to soldiers "All hands on deck!" He walked in and saw Ariana and Nathaniel "oh no…"

Ariana stood up. "I'm not losing him to the CCG."

Okazi nodded "we need everyone so you need to fight, Nathaniel will be fine for now, come on…"

"He better be or I'll be sure the CCG burn to the ground." Ariana deployed her ukaku and put on her mask.

"Use that, we'll need it." Okazi put on his mask as well and deployed ukaku blades.

Ariana jumped out of the window and used her Ukaku to fly down. Okazi followed as his ukaku became rigid and uneven. He also grew spines at the top of his neck. She landed smoothly ready to fight.

Okazi landed on a dove and stabbed them through the shoulders and immediately started fighting as a clawlike structure grew around his face as he gritted his teeth and growled.

Ariana didn't play any attention to that. Her sole focus was on protecting Nathaniel. A few CCG doves approached her. She readied her Ukaku and fired some spikes at them.

As she wiped out the first wave, another charged forward. In a blinding move. Arden spun in midair. She landed and it became apparent that there was a spike crest running up her back as they gathered in cluster over her head as a helmet.

Ariana nodded in thanks. She ran for a bit to recover some energy.

Arden didn't seem to understand her but beat the ground with her hands and yelled as she ran into the group of doves.

After some time Ariana shot at some more doves knocking them down. She wasn't going to let even one get close to Nathaniel.

"Midnight!" A familiar voice yelled.

He "Stephen." Ariana thought to herself.

He activated his Quinque and took an attack stance. "Where's the Viper?"

"That's for me to know and you to never find out."

He sighed and swung his scythe end at Ariana. Ariana quickly dodged it but didn't shoot at him. She needed him alive. He swung the tendril end to throw her toward the wall. Ariana took the blow but immediately got back up. She was going to die before letting Stephen get to him. He threw her threw her through the wall, in a fury.

"I want the Viper! I'll kill him!" He yelled in anger.

"If you think you're going to get your bloody hands even close to him you have another thing coming!"

A volley of shotgun shells flew at her. Stephen had activated his other Quinque.

An explosion rang out. When Ariana looked behind her she realized that it was in the spot Nathaniel should be.

"NOOOOOO!" Ariana cried. They killed him. They killed her love. She needed Stephen alive for now bit she wasn't going to show him any other mercy or any other CCG.

While she was distracted Stephen picked her up and threw her with his Quinque

She went through 3 walls at least. She rubbed her side and there was a painful crack. She probably broke a rib.

Ariana stood up despite the pain. It was very hard too but she had no choice, the CCG had to pay for Nathaniel.

Stephen walked through the hole in the wall ready to fight. Ariana through the pain got into fighting position.

Stephen primed the shotgun. "Just surrender."

"Never."

He fired at her leg. Ariana jumped but it still grazed her.

When she fell she realized they were fighting on top of a pile of corpses.

Stephen looked at the ground. "These ghouls we walk on are the best kind… dead…"

"No." Ariana said bluntly looking at the corpses. "The worst kind."

"These ghouls can't kill my comrades!" Stephen growled.

"I knew most of these." Ariana had a quieter tone. "Some really closely."

Something separated Stephen and Ariana, a ghoul. He had a dragon wing and and tail. But he had only two slits for the eyes, this kakuja wasn't Nathaniel.

"Viper!" Stephen screamed. The ghoul shook his head calmly. They then slammed Stephen back and they began to fight.

Ariana backed away. She stepped on an arm. She gasped it belonged to one of the Children of the Night. She couldn't mourn her fallen friend she had a battle to win.

Stephen seemed to be chipping away at the ghoul on pure rage and hate. Ariana shot a few spikes at him. Stephen used the scythe end to block and dodged a few while fighting.

Ariana needed to rest after that. Most of her energy had been drained from the crash.

It seemed like ever so slightly the ghouls were loosing the upper hand.

Ariana heard chomping on the other side of the pile. Weakly Ariana walked over to see what it was. A ghoul was there, he was obscured by his kagune, his hair stood on end as he feasted on the bodies. It was clear this wasn't a kagune, it was an artificial body manifesting. The form looked like a thin animal, then the head formed and its kagune formed, it had two massive wings and spikes down its back. It looked like a huge dragon. The giant dragon ghoul roared ferociously, it grew horns and looked toward the battle.

Ariana backed away a bit. She'll let the dragon do it's thing.

The dragon looked back at Ariana. It had three eyes. It looked a bit sad as it looked back. It then roared and dashed at the battle and started destroying helicopters and ground soldiers alike.

"Nathaniel." She whispered barely audible so only she could hear.

It was almost a miracle that this behemoth kakuja showed up as it turned the tide.

Over the rampage of the kakuja one of the doves screamed "What the hell is that!?"

Stephen realized he was going to end up like Michelle if this continued so he retreated with the group as the three eyed dragon roared at the retreating group.

Ariana fell to the floor. "Are they gone?"

The dragon deteriorated and Nathaniel only had a pair of jeans on, his shirt looked singed and torn. He walked the the other kakuja

"Nathaniel…?" The kakujas form started to disintegrate.

Nathaniel smiled. "Why hello… father…"

 **AN: Ender:More cliffhangers! Muahahahaha! And another 2000 word chapter! :3**

 **Anime: Oh are we evil. Ender seems to have a plan going on but I don't even know. See you next chapter.**

 **Ender:heh :3**


	12. Son of The Wyvern

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Ghoul.**

The form of the kakuja deteriorated into a tall and sleek but muscular man, it seemed Nathaniel took after his father as their frames were very similar.

The man stepped forward "after all these years…. You've become very strong…."

"Yeah." Nathaniel nodded. "I wish you were there…."

The man looked toward Ariana. She stood quietly for a moment before saying "It's nice to meet you."

The man looked at her and smiled "my name is Austin, I used to belong to the white suits, you must be a captain?" he said eyeing her uniform.

"Yes I am Ariana captain of the Children of the Night section of Dragon Claw."

"Huh… What does your kakuja form look like?" he rubbed his chin.

"I'm not a kakuja." Ariana admitted to him.

Austin raised his eyebrows "You're strong enough to fight hoard of doves with no kakuja? Damn… that's tenacity." he nodded as he adjusted his tie.

"I do whatever i can to protect my home."

Nathaniel walked to Ariana. "Are you ok?"

"I was going to ask the same about you."

Nathaniel looked to the side "Well I'm guessing my changing already answered that…" he then turned to his father "It just just occurred to me… how are you alive?

* * *

 _ **-Flashback-**_

"Nooooo!" a young Nathaniel wailed as tears streamed down his face.

"Shh! Don't look back honey!" Nathaniel's mother said shakily as she ran.

She then jumped into the sky and took flight as fast as she could she quickly flew out of sight.

Austin was lying there. He was shot with Q-bullets and was on the very brink of death, hanging by a thread.

"I'm… going to die here…" he thought as his life flashed before his eyes. He himself however, looked lifeless.

An Explosion broke the silence as a mass of flesh started to manifest itself in front of Austin's body. He looked up weakly. The mass finally took form. A giant skull like face, one large arm that looked almost elastic, the other was armored and shielded, two tails emerged from the back and a giant plume of shards bloomed from the upper back. The beast screeched, the CCG couldn't react as it sweeped with the sharp sides of the shield and then in the same motion without stopping it spun around and slashed with the tails. Anyone left was crushed in the other hand. The beast left quickly after to recover stamina.

Austin's vision started to darken. "Is that….?" He lost consciousness.

A few hours after, Austin woke up as his wounds healed. "What… the…?" he looked around at the corpses. He didn't care how he lived through the attack, he had food to feast on. He quickly did so and then deployed his dragon wing kagune. "The wyvern is dead CCG… The Dragon will want to avenge him… he thought about what his son may accomplish in the future and chuckled. "I wonder if he even knows my alias…"

* * *

"That's incredible how you were able to survive." Ariana said after hearing the story.

"Yes… It was a miracle" he agreed.

He looked toward Nathaniel "It's funny… I look back and I find it funny you took the alias the dragon."

"Yeah… I'm glad to see you again nonetheless, so how'd you know we were here?"

Austin looked to Nathaniel and pointed to his nose. "Where do you think your amazing sense of smell came from?"

* * *

It took hours to patch the holes with wood, after they were patched teams worked on putting stone bricks into the opening to repair the holes.

Nathaniel had sat down but was exhausted, especially since he was blown to pieces and lived the day before. He drank coffee and tried to relax. But it was hard because of the things that happened to him, the horrible memories were flooding back. He sat on the couch in a catatonic state he started to shake as well. He tried to keep his composure but he couldn't stop shaking and then he dropped his coffee.

"Are you okay?" Nathaniel looked up to see Ariana standing by the door holding some food. She walked over and placed it in front of him. "I thought you might be hungry."

He looked toward her miserably. " I'm sorry I'm just… tired… " he picked up the pieces of the cup and threw them away.

"You should probably eat." Ariana suggested pushing the plate a little closer to him.

Nathaniel seemed distracted. He was still thinking about the mistakes he made, the lives it cost him, his own life… months of horrible memories chained him to the ground as he started to breathe fast. He grabbed his head and fell to his knees. He was unable to move.

"Nathaniel!" Ariana cried running to his side.

He shivered uncontrollably as he was tormented by these horrible emotions.

Ariana knelt down next to him she didn't know what to do.

Arden walked in, apparently just in time. "Oh no…" she looked concerned but jumped in to help, she took Ariana's hand and made her wrap her arms around Nathaniel "I'm pretty sure you can calm him down." She said as she sat next to them.

"It's going to be alright." Ariana tried to comfort Nathaniel the best she could. She refused to let go of him.

It didn't look to work at first but slowly, Nathaniel seemed to be coming back to this world, he looked at what had happened and seemed to have calmed down.

"There you are…" Arden said calmly "listen, I don't know what we're gonna do about our numbers, we're starting to crumble a bit, I don't know how much longer we can hold our ground.

Nathaniel stood up. "I remembered that I have a meet up with a friend. I'll be back soon." Nathaniel walked out.

Ariana wanted to follow him but fought the urge to and remained where she was.

* * *

Nathaniel took off his long coat and put on a dark gray hoodie. And walked out the door and into the city.

"Hey Stephen, sorry I'm late man."

At the base, everyone was trying to fortify the building, it was going well so far.

"Jeez… Out of battle Nathaniel can go behemoth and control it right? Some more muscular and massive hands really would help…" Ross complained. Ariana was a bit creeped out because Ross' head was smashed and only half healed, he was okay, but regeneration in his head slowed down a bit after his brain was fully repaired.

"Can he control it?" Ariana asked trying not to stare at his head.

Ross shrugged. "It's fairly new…"

Arden Lifted a gurdur into place as she talked "yeah- Urgh! We have only seen it once besides yesterday, but he only had a half developed mask and his spiky dragon tail."

"So how have you been?" Nathaniel asked as Stephen finished ordering.

"Pretty ok, the jobs been difficult, last night there was a raid that failed… Damn viper… oh, also Your friend visited me a few days ago, she seems nice…"

"Yeah, she's swe-"

"Are you two dating?" Stephen smirked

Nathaniel gave him a tap on the arm as he laughed

"Yes we are…" He smiled

"Man… lucky guy you, she seems awesome."

Nathaniel sipped his coffee.

Stephen waved a doughnut in his face "you want it?"

"Nah, I ate before I got here" he hid a smile towards the irony that he really did eat before he left, it just wasn't human food...

"Yeah, well I gotta go… a ton of ghouls are resurfacing"

"Mind if I tag along?" Nathaniel asked

"No, sorry not this time, things are really hectic at the office."

"Ok, i'll see you later."

As Nathaniel walked back to the tower, he took an alleyway as a shortcut.

"Hey! Punk!" a voice said behind him.

A ghoul grabbed his head and turned him around, Nathaniel barely felt inclined to give him a reaction. "What do you need sir?" he said with a completely straight face.

"You're trespassing on my feeding grounds kid! Move or else you're prey!"

Nathaniel glared at him "Is that so? Then prove it." he said through his teeth.

The ghoul released a spiked bikaku and lunged forward, Nathaniel found it easy to evade and throw a punch at his chest. There was a loud crack as several ribs were shattered. The ghoul hit the ground and yelled in pain, Nathaniel put on his mask and looked down at the man with active kakugan. "I'm the viper, heard of me?" the ghouls face went from anger, to terror and fear.

"Y-you're that new kakuja?" the ghoul tried to back away before a Magenta tedril Pierced his chest. Nathaniel used his other tendrils to tear him to pieces.

He heard a scream from a woman who had just passed through the alley. Nathaniel stared at the woman for a second and jumped up to the roof and made a mad dash for the tower.

When he got home he hung up his hoodie and went to the room where he was hit with the missile. He sat on the now cleaned floor and looked at the sky. It was dusk and the stars were starting to appear in the skies. He sighed and layed down, before he knew it he fell asleep.

 **An: Ender: hey, sorry for the lack of stories, me and Animefan's schedules are packed. We still plan to release a new story a little sooner this time, see you guys later! :D**


	13. Outcast

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Ghoul.**

When Nathaniel woke up the sun had just started rising, as he sat up the city was starting to buzz to life. He yawned and stretched before he went downstairs, he walked to each captain's door and knocked twice on each door as he walked down the hall, he sat in the common room as the four venom eggs gathered to him

"Sir we have details of the next attack from the CCG, they March in three days for this HQ, and in big numbers."

Nathaniel folded his hands and rested his chin on them.

"Alright, inform the other groups and captains."

Nathaniel put on his coat and mask and walked outside.

Jaden woke up first, he got up and got ready. It had been a few months since the cochlea raid where he first joined, now he was finally a captain, after much intensive training. He walked to the roof with a few members of his group, the angler minnows. He and the few following jumped into action and started patrolling the city.

Ariana woke up at the same time Arden and Ross did, the three went downstairs for coffee until their squads fully assembled.

"Did you guys sleep well?" Ariana asked taking a sip of her coffee.

Both of them nodded. Just then, one of the venom eggs came over and leaned in to the captains

"Nathaniel requests that all captains brief their groups for battle in three days, or as soon as possible."

"Thank you Ella." Ariana said before the venom egg left and she pulled out her walkie talkie. "Nyx assemble the children of the night."

Nathaniel walked into The CCG hq and walked through the rc detector, it didn't go off… he went to the front desk and asked for Stephen.

"So you're worried about the raid in three days? Don't! It's my job!" He chuckled. "How'd you even learn about it?"

"I've heard it around…" Nathaniel said, worried that Stephen was onto him again.

"Stephen looked a bit annoyed "Some people really gotta keep quiet around here"

Nathaniel looked through the window towards the tower and then continued talking to Stephen.

* * *

"Alright is everyone here?" Ariana asked the Children of the Night. "I know we are down a few members but we can't let that stop us. As both individuals and as a group we need to get stronger. Does anyone have question?"

Kuk raised his hand. "You may speak Kuk."

"Should try to find new members amongst some of the younger Dragon Claw members?" He asked.

"You know we don't allow anyone younger than thirteen to be on a team." Nyx reminded him probably glaring at him from under her mask.

"Actually." Kuk started to defend himself. "We do allow younger members to join if they reach a certain skill."

"I'm not comfortable with twelve year olds on the team even if they pass me skill wise."

"Isn't Dream twelve?" Photebus asked smiling slyly as Dream started to back away slowly.

"Dream is turning thirteen next week and she only joined two weeks ago." Nyx turned away of the two. "She's not going anywhere near the fight."

"She might have to prior to her birthday." Kuk said not caring. "It's how the system works. The CCG don't take mercy on anyone even children."

"Don't a be a downer." Another male Child of the Night complained.

"Maybe we should stay out of this Pitch." Twilight placed her hands on his shoulders.

"I think we've talked enough about that." Ariana stopped the argument before it go on any further. "Any other questions?"

"Yeah, why does Nyx have to act like she's in charge?" Pitch asked pointed to the female ghoul.

"Did Photebus tell you to say that?" Nyx asked rolling her eyes.

"How about any questions that do not involve insulting of your teammates." Ariana said glaring at Pitch.

"Do you have any fighting formations in mind?" Dream asked quietly.

"Hmm." Ariana thought about it for a moment. "Anyone have an idea?"

"Yeah fight the CCG." Pitch said.

"Anyone besides Pitch."

"How about we all write down our ideas then share them?" Nyx suggested as everyone nodded.

Arden walked in. I've got a plan...

Nathaniel waved to Stephen as he left the HQ. he took his normal route home and walked into the tower, he put on his jacket and called in the venom eggs.

"Everyone is aware of the attack?"

"Yes they are…"

"Good work Boa" Nathaniel patted her head.

The masked girl smiled feeling accomplished.

"Well, let's keep sharp…" Nathaniel said to the other venom eggs

Nathaniel released his ukaku dragon blades and dashed at them, they scattered and all activated their kagunes. They all went in for a charge but Nathaniel sweeped around him, two jumped up, the other two jumped back and kept their distance, the two in the air went for a downward cut but they were both run through by Nathaniel's rinkaku. "Next time!" One of the ghouls laughed as he got free of the tendril. Nathaniel smiled "that wasn't too bad…" the other two took a dash toward Nathaniel, he jumped toward one and cut him in half. "Damn! Same as last time!" He said as he regenerated his lower half. It was now Nathaniel versus Ella, the boa.

Ella Kept her kokakus up like lances. Nathaniel let one kagune deteriorate. "Let's even the playing field.." he closed his eyes and opened one eye, it was normal, he opened the other, a single kakugan. He looked at her and smiled. He let out his dragon tail and they ran at each other, they exchanged strikes very fast, then backed off, then repeated for four minutes until Ella went in for another charge and then Nathaniel jumped to the side and stabbed her through her back.

"Man! I almost had you!"

Nathaniel smiled "good, we're improving."

"Impressive." Ariana thought to herself taking a peek at the fight between Ella and Nathaniel. "Though I think Nathaniel had a normal eye at one point."

One of the venom eggs then fell to the floor and grabbed his sides as his kagune started to form, he started to loose control and screamed on the floor as his kagune latched to the ceiling. One of the other venom eggs went over to comfort him as he calmed down.

"We all need to learn kakuja control…" Nathaniel said as he looked toward them.

"I hope he's alright." Ariana accidentally blurted out.

"Huh?" Nathaniel looked up from the situation.

"You only have one kakugan!" Ariana gasped stepping back a little.

"Yeah I'm a little bit stronger like this." He paused for a moment. " Besides it being a fun party trick."

He closed the normal eye when it reopened the eye was now a kakugan. "I'm feeling a bit hungry."

Nathaniel proceeded to walk out of the room with the other venom eggs following closely behind him.

"I guess I could eat." Ariana said starting to follow them.

"You wouldn't want to follow us." Nathaniel said holding her shoulder to prevent her from moving ahead with them.

"Why is that?" Ariana asked a bit offended.

"We're kakujas as you know, so our diets are… well… you know…" Nathaniel tried to approach the situation gingerly.

Her eyes widened as she realized what he meant. "Oh… ok"

"I mean you are welcome to come…"

"No no… it's fine…"

The situation got slightly awkward at that moment, so Nathaniel walked away to a different room to eat, The venom eggs followed.

Ariana waited until Nathaniel was out of her sight before heading upstairs. As she walked she remained silent, only speaking when someone spoke to her first. After a few minutes she reached her room and walked inside. Lying on her bed she opened one of the draws and pulled out a picture. In it was a young couple with their child on the mother's lap as the father looked at both of them. Ariana hugged the picture carefully. She missed to those days. When her mom was happy.

* * *

" _Momma! Momma!" Ariana said running over as her mom sat on the couch sewing something. "I got this for you."_

 _"Why thank you honey." Her mother said taking the small flower. "It's really lovely."_

 _"When is Daddy getting home?" She asked looking at her mother._

 _"Soon sweetheart soon." Her mother said returning to her sewing. "Why don't you draw something for him?"_

 _"Are you okay Momma?" Arianna asked._

 _"I'm alright." She said still looking at her sewing._

 _Returning to her room Ariana started playing with her stuffed animals. She looked at her stuffed piglet and immediately hugged it. While playing she heard the door open._

 _"Daddy!" Ariana said running over to her father as he put his suitcase down._

 _"Hi there angel." He said picking her up and embracing his daughter._

 _"I missed you." Ariana wrapped her arms around her father's neck as the phone rang._

 _"I got it." Ariana's mother said running towards it._

 _Ariana's father put her back on the ground and walked over to his wife. Immediately she went to stuffed animals and started playing with them. As she played she heard the phone suddenly drop._

 _"Ariana." Ariana ran over to her father in her doorway. "Can you stay in here for a bit?"_

 _"Are you okay?" Ariana asked with tears forming in her eyes._

 _"Mommy and I just need to talk for a bit." Ariana's father lifted her up and placed her on her bed before giving her a kiss on the forehead._

 _Ariana stayed in her room but couldn't stay still. Her mind was on what her dad told and the sound of the phone hitting the floor. That sound repeated over and over again. All she could was sit on her bed worrying._

 _"Well we're going to have to tell her eventually." Ariana's mother said through tears._

 _"Mommy!" Ariana ran over to her mom. "Are you okay?"_

 _"Honey i need to tell you something." Her mom took a deep breath. "Uncle John is dead."_

 _The young ghoul's face fell and she started to cry. "Why Mommy?"_

 _Her father picked up his daughter. "You're too young to know."_

 _"I'll tell her why." Her mom stood up. "It was because of those freaking gangs he got involved with."_

 _"Honey please she's only six." Her father tries to argue holding his daughter tighter._

 _"I don't care!" Her mother screamed as Ariana buried her head in her father's shoulder. "She needs to know. I always told John to leave. I did and look where we are now. But he had to stay with his friends and become one of those freaking kakujas. I told him countless times but he had to keep making stupid decision after stupid decision. Now I've lost him just like our parents."_

 _Ariana's father put his daughter down. "She shouldn't be hearing this_."

 _Not saying a word her mom left and her father soon followed leaving their daughter alone. Ariana couldn't stop crying. She didn't understand what was going on but she didn't want to end up like that._

"And now I'm halfway there." Ariana whispered on her bed.

She felt a tap on her shoulder and she jumped as she turned tensely.

Nathaniel was standing there a bit surprised.

"Ariana?" he said concerned.

"Sorry I was lost in thought." Ariana said a little nervously. "Also you got something on your face."

He looked in the mirror. "Oh! Sorry, I just finished eating." He wiped the blood from his face.

"So are you okay?"

"I guess." She answered lying on her back.

Nathaniel looked concerned "no you're not, it's almost obvious now…" he sat her down on her bed and he sat next to her. "What's wrong?" He said, worried about her wellbeing.

"It's kind of hard to talk about." Ariana said rolling on her side.

Nathaniel put his hand on her shoulder. "Come on, you know it's ok to tell me."

She turned around towards Nathaniel, tears starting to form in her eyes. "Alright, I'll start at the beginning."

After the story had been told Nathaniel was left there shocked, he now understood why Ariana acted the way she did. Nathaniel was at a loss for words for a minute, when he found the words he turned to Ariana.

"I-I feel so guilty… I wish I could try to help in some way but I can do one thing…"

Nathaniel hugged Ariana. Ariana returned it with tears still in her eyes.

"I miss him so much." Ariana cried burying her head in Nathaniel's shoulder.

Nathaniel rubbed her back as Ariana cried her heart out. "It's ok… we've all lost family…"

After Ariana tired herself out and fell asleep, Nathaniel brushed back her hair and kissed her forehead. "One day, maybe we won't worry about our families being in danger" he hugged her snuggly.

Ariana woke up and rubbed her eyes. Immediately she started reaching for Nathaniel. Upsettingly she noticed his absence. Soon she noticed something on her nightstand.

 _Hey Ariana._

 _I needed to run out for something real quick, I'll be back soon so here's some_ _human_ _flesh, I hope to be back soon, love you._

 _Nathaniel._

Ariana picked up the plate and smiled. Her kakugan activated. She was kind of hungry. Putting the plate on her lap she took off the plastic wrap and started eating. It tasted really satisfying.

Feeling the cool breeze from the open window Ariana decided to take a walk. Closing the window Ariana soon grabbed her jacket and mask she headed outside. After all that went down she needed time to clear her head for a few minutes.

As she was walking she heard footsteps behind her and soon she smelled ghoul blood, and it was coming from behind her. Picking up the pace a little Ariana hoped to out walk whatever was behind her.

"Hey… don't run away now…" a friendly sounding voice said from behind her

Cautiously Ariana turned around. There was a man standing there in a hoodie that was covered in blood, Ariana presumed ghoul blood.

"A-a… Kakuja?"

 **AN: Anime: So marching band has ended allowing Ender and I to write some more. While it is fun it does slow down writing a bit. We also got some of Ariana's backstory here which I have been planning when I created the character. Hope everyone is enjoying this. See you next chapter.**


	14. The Awakening

**Disclaimer: I do not own tokyo ghoul.**

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to trespass." Ariana said to the kakuja trying to hide her nervousness.

The kakuja chuckled "Oh no, please you should stay for dinner."

"Oh I just ate I'm sorry." Ariana started to back away slightly.

"I wasn't asking for you." the kakuja gritted his teeth and a mask started to form on his face, his kagune deployed but it was oddly shaped, it looked like a kokaku but it was forming 4 thin, sharp, spider-like appendages. He licked his lips and dashed at her, pinning her against the wall. Immediately Ariana tried to escape.

"Oh no, no, no." The ghoul said as his kokaku started to tense up and a mask started slowly creeping across his face as it generated.

"Uh oh." Ariana thought to herself as she started to run away. "I have to get out of here."

Before she could get away she found herself being thrown to the ground. She screamed as the spider legs pierced through her arms preventing any escape from happening. Her consciousness started to fade away as the kakuja drew closer.

"Ah yes you look delicious." The kakuja said as Ariana slipped away.

* * *

"Well this is unfortunate." Someone said close to where Ariana was. "Our family has really been affected by these attacks."

Getting the strength to open her eyes Ariana gasped. She was back at her childhood apartment. It seemed to have aged with faded walls and ripped curtains. For some reason it seemed to be foggy. Looking at the old living room table she saw an overturned picture. Picking it up she smiled. It was from when she was five and at the amusement park with her uncle. Holding back her tears she embraced the photo.

"That is a nice picture isn't it." She heard the voice say but sounding very familiar now. "It was a very nice day too."

"Uncle John?" Ariana asked in disbelief. Looking up she saw her uncle on the balcony. He seemed to be staring off into the distance with a hand in his pocket. Ariana walked closer to him. "Have you been alive all this time?"

"I have been." John answered still looking out into the distance. "In your memories."

"I was hoping you'd really be alive." Ariana looked down as she walked next to him.

"You can't change what happened in the past Ariana. You can change the future even the present but never the past."

"You sound like Grandpa." Ariana said leaning over the balcony as John started to chuckle a little.

"Death doesn't feel to great. Believe me, I know. You on the other hand don't have to experience that yet. At least not this way."

"I remember how Mom was when you died. Hate to see her if I died the same way."

"Ah yes my big sister how has she been?"

"Not herself since you died." Ariana looked the other direction.

"I figured that. Ever since we were younger she always wanted to protect me. That's why we joined that gang in the first place for our protection. Then your mom met your dad and in less than a second she was gone for good."

"You could have this." Ariana said somberly. "You could have found someone and had a family."

"I could have." Ariana turned towards to her uncle. "But I did have this."

At that moment, his face was covered by a half mask that looked like it had teeth protruding from the from the mouth area and his bikaku grew small bristles as he spread his arms as parts of his bikaku wrapped around his arms.

"How are proud of that?" Ariana asked slightly appalled by the display.

"This Ariana." John lifted up one of his arms. "Is power."

"But," Ariana paused a bit before continuing. "But it's how you died."

"Not how I see it." John looked down a bit. "I should have known I couldn't have taken them all at once."

"What do you mean?" Ariana asked him confused.

"Our old gang was falling apart. The members were literally eating each other. Two of my friends and I wanted to leave but the current leader had a new policy. With our member count already decreasing as fast as they were already another loss wouldn't look good on our record. When we were about to leave the current leader and his lackeys jumped us. I fought them off single handedly. My friends were able to escape even though I made the ultimate sacrifice."

"You mean you died to save your friends." Ariana said walking closer to him.

"I had no choice. I knew they wouldn't be able to fight them."

"I always thought they killed you simply because you were a kakuja."

"Sometimes that's how things work you expect one thing to be true while in fact it's the complete opposite."

"But why did you even become a kakuja?" Ariana asked desperately needing an answer.

"To protect your mother when she couldn't protect herself. She could have died and we would have lost you too." he held up his hands and warmed them.

"There are immeasurable amounts of power, waiting for a kakuja to unlock, the stage i died at wasn't even half of the power you can begin to acquire. Look at your friends, they have power to protect themselves and others because of what they have become." she looked into the distance as she began to see her friends at dragon's claw. They all had kakuja forms and were all standing proud.

"This looks so unusual." Ariana said looking at her friends.

"They did this to protect their friends and everyone close to them." A dragon with three eyes perched on the roof and roared after he spoke.

"Is that Nathaniel?" Ariana looked up in awe.

"He made this form… to protect you" John turned to her.

"Protect me?" Ariana said in surprise.

"Yep, he almost lost his mind to attain it."

"Why would he do that?" Ariana cried.

"He loves you." John said as he took off his hat. "He wants you to live." He looked at her. "So fulfill his wish! LIVE!" He yelled as Ariana faded to reality.

* * *

She opened her eyes to the kakuja who was opening his mouth to bite her.

With all of her strength Ariana used her Ukaku to fire spikes at him.

He blocked a few shards but some sunk into his body. He was visibly annoyed and charged at her. Standing back up Ariana fired more spikes at him. He flattened his spider legs into shield-like blade and chest armor and started to block more effectively. Ariana breathed slowly trying to gain some of her strength back. After a bit she fired three spikes. He blocked the three of them easily.

"What do I do?" She thought to herself starting to feel anxious.

The Kakuja lunged in and on instinct she jumped just high enough so she could extend her legs and force him to the ground.

"Urgh!" the kakuja growled as he got back up. He dug his kagune into the ground and threw himself at her with two blades outstretched like a living torpedo.

Ariana used her speed to her advantage and flipped over him, she then, as fast as she could and without thinking, bit into his neck and tore a chunk out and ate it, it hit her tongue with a strange and somewhat rotten taste but she gulped the piece down the second she swallowed the flesh, the holes in her hands healed almost as fast as they had been made. Her vision also got a bit blurry as her stomach growled, she was very hungry and having a bite didn't help her maintain control. She started to act on more and more instinct as her bloodlust started to take over.

The kakuja started to waiver, noticing Ariana was starting to overpower him. He started to get on the defensive. Ariana still persisted, she didn't feel tired either, she was filling with all these emotions that were forcing themselves out to be known, it was like a ball of fire was burning inside of her. She outstretched her wings and they grew a bit, she dashed at the kakuja and slashed at his chest, his armor was pierced by her wing, he started to panic as she kept following up with more slashes until his kagune deteriorated and he fell to his knees.

"Urgh! H-how..?" he looked at Ariana in terror.

"You monster." Ariana yelled before mindlessly taking another bite from him.

He screamed as Ariana kept ripping him to pieces until eventually there was nothing left.

Ariana breathed heavily it felt so good. She felt so alive! Then it hit her. She had just consumed a ghoul. She became the one thing she despised more than the CCG. running over to the back of the alley she started to try to undo it all.

She was about to to make herself throw it up when a hand grabbed hers. She turned ready for a fight, but when she saw who it was. Her eyes welled up with tears. Nathaniel was there.

"Help me." She whispered to once she realized it was him.

He hugged her. "You don't need help, you just need time." he looked emotionless. He then formed his kakuja dragon wings and flew them both back to the tower.

"I can't believe I did that." Ariana cried still trying to force it out of her while crying.

Nathaniel continued to stop her as he led her down a hallway she didn't recognize.

"Nathaniel please i just want to undo my mistake." She started to explained to him as they kept walking. "I wasn't thinking it just sort of happened."

"Even if you could, I would want you to recognize your newfound power."

"Can't we just keep this between ourselves?" Ariana begged starting to tear up again.

"No… your true nature would be found out sooner or later, you should try to embrace it." He Kissed her forehead and gave her a hug.

"But this isn't me. I don't want to eat my own kind." She paused for minute before continuing. "Even if my family has a history of it. I sort of promised myself that this wouldn't happen."

"I have a hard time believing that there were no kakujas in your family" Nathaniel responded as he tilted his head.

"There were." Ariana looked down seemingly ashamed by this.

"Kakujas are powerful, they may be considered taboo but they are very powerful, once a certain threshold is broken." Nathaniel said as he turned the knob of a door.

Ariana stepped back a little. Something inside of her was saying it was a bad idea to go in there.

Nathaniel stepped in and looked at the pile of corpses piled in a little mound. It smelled of ghoul blood but none of the ghouls in the pile seemed familiar.

Ariana poked her head in. "I am not eating from that!"

"You don't need to yet but you can come into this room since you have stepped into our world.

"I wish I could go back and undo this." Ariana thought to herself stepping away slowly from the room.

"Nobody can change the past…" he sighed as he grabbed a piece of ghoul meat.

Refusing to watch this Ariana ran back to her room. Once there she got under her covers, hoping this was a dream that would all go away.

"Hey" Ariana felt a tap on her shoulder from under the blankets. "You ok Ariana?"

"No." She answered bluntly.

Arden lifted the covers off of Ariana "if… your.. Hurt… witch you don't look to be, then you should tell us." Arden looked over her "you look fine"

"I'm not." She replied burying her head in her pillow.

"What's up?" she rubbed Ariana's back.

"Have you ever regretted doing something?" Ariana asked her.

"Totally, Why?"

"I regret going outside my room today."

"Why is that?" Arden chuckled a bit. "It couldn't be too bad…"

"I ate a ghoul without thinking." Ariana told her reluctantly. "Now I'm a monster."

Arden looked a bit offended "Uhmm… I've eaten a lot of other ghouls, I lost count almost a year ago"

"You like doing that I don't." Ariana pulled the covers over her again.

"It's not as weird as you think!" she left very offended.

"Great now I ruined my relationship with Arden." She whispered to herself. She looked at her window if she wanted to she could. "Do I even belong here? I keep ruining everything."

A few minutes later Nathaniel walked in. "hey, Arden told me you were upset about..."

He paused he saw her standing in the window. She wasn't facing him but she looked ready to jump.

"...what are you-"

Without speaking she lept from the window. She deployed her wings and flew away.

Nathaniel stood shocked for a second, he then deployed his dragon wings and took off after her. Ariana flew on without looking back. She tried to fly faster except her back kept cramping up.

Nathaniel spread his wings and simultaneously deployed his crescent wings as he accelerated and caught up really quickly to Ariana. Hoping to get away Ariana swooped down into a dark alley. She ran and stopped in front of three glowing eyes. Nathaniel had caught up, he stared at her through his Kakuja Mask.

"There's got to be a way out." She thought to herself as she looked around.

Nathaniel broke the silence. "Why?" he said in an upset tone.

"I don't want to be this." She said quietly.

"You can't change the past. you need to look ahead to the future" Nathaniel said walking forward to hug her.

"But I promised I wouldn't become this."

"Well. it's a bit late for that." he chuckled "please… come back to the tower. We want you to be safe."

As he said that a CCG agent rounded the corner and jumped back

Nathaniel looked fast and covered Ariana's face with the mask he used as the phantom.

The agent activated his Quinque. It was a neon green scythe. Immediately Ariana threw a few of her spikes at him.

The agent deflected all but one, which missed.

Nathaniel raised his wings and roared at the agent. A little scared Ariana backed a few steps back to let Nathaniel do his thing

Nathaniel Dashed toward the agent and shot a hurricane of spikes at him, the spikes were a bit larger due to his kakuja nature. The agent went to block a spike and it shattered the scythe blade to which he jumped for cover. As he did though, one spike went right through his leg which blew it off.

Ariana gasped at the power that spike had.

The Agent screamed as Nathaniel picked him up and drove his cresent through the man's heart.

"Are we going to eat him?" Ariana asked.

"Prey is prey…" he responded.

"When was the last time you ate?" Ariana asked concerned.

"I haven't had a proper meal in half a month." Nathaniel answered shoving the heart in his mouth.

"Well you can have it all then." Just then from the side she noticed a rinkaku pierce his shoulder. Before he could react he was pierced by two more. A ghoul walked into the open.

"Well… two ghouls, and you don't appear to be a kakuja miss, looks like you're first he said looking at Ariana.

Ariana looked at Nathaniel he was currently motionless on the ground. If she didn't do anything who knows what would have happened to him. She couldn't leave him to die meaning there was only one thing she could do.

"That's where you're wrong."

He eyed her and sniffed the air. "You don't smell like one." He tilted his head as his jaw was covered with one of the tendrils, the other two wrapped around his arms.

"Does it matter?" Ariana asked.

The tendril across his face manifested into a large lower jaw and the ones on his arms tuned into large claws. "It will soon."

With all her might Ariana spread her wings larger. As a test she fired on of her spikes, slightly larger than before and it was unable to strike him. Jumping she flew into the air.

He used his kagune wrapped arms to catapult himself upward at Ariana and went in for a swing. As quickness she could Ariana dodged it. Hoping for safety she went on top of the building.

Using the surroundings to his advantage, he tore up rubble to throw at her. Luckily for Ariana she was quickly able to dodge it. Looking around she found a brick and threw it at him before surrounding herself with her wings. The brick hit him in the jaw and he jumped up to slam down on her wings but was stopped, he looked at the two stab marks.

Nathaniel had climbed to the roof and used his tail to stab the ghoul

"Why you…" before he finished Nathaniel had grabbed his face and hit him against the building surface.

The ghoul summoned his rinkaku to attack Nathaniel but his

Tendrils caught the others. The two were locked where they stood, even Nathaniel found his ukaku busy with the man's kagune.

Ariana watched the scene intently. She looked down she could escape right now but that would leave Nathaniel alone. She couldn't do that to him. Creeping over she made it behind the ghoul without him noticing. Closing her eyes she took a bite out of him

He yelled out and tried to lunge at her but was still entangled in Nathaniel's kagune. "AURGH! You… augh! Nathaniel grabbed him by the jaw before he crushed the ghoul's mandible bone in his grip. "It's impolite to insult a lady, even more so when you interrupt her meal…"

Ariana swallowed the piece of ghoul meat in her mouth before saying. "Make another move and I'll bite you again!"

The man didn't respond to her request and kept struggling. "Argh ugh rgh…" he tried to speak but it was no use his jaw was splintered.

"I will." Ariana reinforced stumbling a bit. "I'm not afraid to. I'll only get stronger."

The man scoffed despite the broken jaw and rolled his eyes as he tried to reach out with his arm.

With quick movement Ariana dodged before biting him on the arm. Ripping out a piece she quickly ate it.

"I told you." She said angrily not letting go of his arm.

He grunted in pain but with his remaining strength he used his other arm to try to grab her back and claw at anything he could.

He grabbed him tighter. "And I'm not afraid to eat every bit of you until you nothing but some rags."

He wriggled a tendril free, but instead of stabbing her to stop her, he stabbed Nathaniel to free more tendrils. He hit Nathaniel in the stomach.

Nathaniel was forced back and was able to barely retain his grip.

"Too far." Ariana whispered before biting into his neck.

Blood sprayed everywhere as the man started to go limp, Ariana started to eat the man's corpse as she stuck to her word and ate him until he was just ribbons.

"Oh sorry should have asked if you wanted some." Ariana wiping her mouth.

Nathaniel shook his head and smiled, he hugged her close and licked her cheek of the blood. "I think you deserved all of it."

Just then Ariana felt a small tingling sensation from her back.

Something had been laid dormant for the moment...

 _2 days left…_

 **AN: Anime: We hit 3k words I can't believe It! Seems like yesterday we were struggling for 2k. Wow have we come so far with this story. See you next chapter.**


	15. Preparations

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Ghoul.**

Ariana laid on her bed. She had no desire to move from it al all. For some unbeannouced reason both her back and stomach decided to be acting up today. Whenever she tried to sit up she felt a sharp pain in both areas. It was worse in her back causing her not to move and remain on her stomach.

"Ariana are you in there?" Nathaniel asked knocking on the door. "No one's seen you all day."

"I'm in here." Ariana said weakly.

"Can I come in?" Nathaniel asked concerned.

"Sure."

Nathaniel walked in and paused. "Woah what's wrong?"

"Both my back and stomach are hurting." Ariana said still not moving.

"Do you know what caused it?"

"No." Ariana lifted her head slightly from the pillow.

"I'll be right back." Nathaniel said leaving. A few moments later he returned with a pile of meat in his hands. "Here eat this."

"I ate two ghouls yesterday, how is eating more going to help?"

"We won't know unless we try." Nathaniel walked over to the side of her bed and handed her the meat. Desperate to try anything Ariana took the meat and ate it. It was very tangy and a little sour. After she ate it all she felt her body tense up before relaxing.

"Better?" Nathaniel asked after a few second.

"Ah... way better." Ariana sighed rolling on her back. "Does that always happen when you eat two ghouls in one day?"

"I dunno this is all I've known all my life." Nathaniel admitted looking at the window. "You won't jump through and try to run away again, will you?"

"No!" Ariana said defensively.

"Just checking." Nathaniel smirked playfully.

"It was one time!" Ariana defended as she sat up.

"But it was yesterday." Nathaniel pointed out still smirking.

"What? I was upset." Ariana pouted with her arms crossed.

Nathaniel smiled and kissed her on the forehead.

He looked to the window, it had started snowing.

"...I wonder if it will stick…" Nathaniel said to himself.

Later on, the captains met with one another for a conference.

"OK, so let's go over it one more time… I'll take the back with Jaden, He takes the ground and I'll take the sky, and you guys all will take the front? Don't you feel like the rear guard is being vastly overestimated? We'll be crushed by that army!" Okazi stated.

"They aren't trying anything sneaky, at most you might actually be covering our escape if we lose." Nathaniel replied. "According to what I've found by hanging out with Stephen, They're only attacking the front in a fair fight I guess?"

"Nathaniel!" Arden said causing all the other captains to look at her. "We've been over this, it's not safe to be buddy buddy with members of the CCG."

"I don't even understand why you meet with him anyway." Ross added.

"We've been friends since we were younger, we were close but he never really questioned my parents or my nature."

* * *

Stephen walked into the Office. "So why were we meeting? Didn't we already go over the raid Strategy?"

"The superiors just want to make sure we're prepared for when it happens." Michelle said lounging in her chair. "This is a really big deal."

"Maybe if we win we can have a drink to celebrate!" Dylan cheered as he danced around the office.

"And I can relax." Sam adding hugging a stuffed ferret.

"Ok, so what do we have so far? Are we changing the plan?"

"Not that I know of." Michelle responded.

"Alright, then we just know we march full front, and just adapt? I mean, we've seen the Viper, the Midnight, and their goons, they're crafty." Stephen lectured.

"Can I kill Midnight and use her kagune as my new quinque?" Sam asked deviously as she bounced in her chair.

"Sure" said Michelle as she patted Sam's head.

"And the Viper?" Dylan asked Stephen. "Is that finders keepers?"

"I don't mind" Stephen responded. "As long as the job is done."

"Hopefully we get paid good so I can buy a treat for my babies." Sam pulled out a picture of her pet ferrets.

Stephen was walking home with Dylan.

"I'm so siked the raid is in a Day! We can finally erase that scum of Dragons claw!"

"Mhmm.."stephen said, a bit preoccupied.

"I wonder Why Nathaniel has been looking tired lately, he hasn't really been acting himself lately. Maybe he's got something to do with it?... No, that would be crazy, he would tell me or something…" Stephen was thinking it over and over but he just wasn't seeing where the pattern was.

* * *

Arden walked out and reached her hand out as the snow rested for a moment before melting and vanishing, she walked through town wearing a large scarf.

"Looks like it might stick…"

She walked into an alley and saw a group of children who were all ghouls, judging by the way they looked as they were emaciated, thin and their eyes were aglow, shining a crimson color on the starving little ghouls

"Ah… you poor things." Arden looked at them sadly. "How about you come with me?" Arden's eyes glowed the crimson shade of her ghoul nature to show the children she was one of them.

"Let's get you guys some food."

Arden carried one of the children on her back as she slept, and gave one of them the hat and the other one the scarf that she had so they could mask themselves.

They reached the tower and she took the back door as not to be seen entering. She brought them to the mound of human flesh and all of their eyes lit up. "Thank you miss!" one of them said as she smiled warmly.

"Stay as long as you want too. You can even join when you're older."

She walked out and to her room. She ran her fingers through her short hair

"Damn, they remind me of myself."

A little ghoul girl ran down the street as two men pursued her

"Get back here you little runt!" one of the men yelled. "That's my kill!"

The girl held a chunk of human flesh in hand. She ate it very fast and hid for an hour.

"The same cycle…" Arden said. "Every day…"

She walked around and watched it snow from the window of a higher floor of the tower

Another memory flooded her mind.

 _Her younger self, bruised and bleeding, she limped down a street until something stopped her, a boy that looked a bit younger, he offered his hand_

 _"Join me… defend the weak and defenseless from this horrible and vicious world"_

 _She took his hand._

"Nathaniel… hm… you've always had a way with words…"

She looked at the darkening sky and watched airplanes pass above and watched traffic pass below.

She heard a smash from behind her and she jumped around. One of the pictures of her, Nathaniel and Ross had hit the floor and shattered. She was only able to find the part with Nathaniel and Ross' faces. She couldn't find her own.

"Shit… well, i'll just take another picture with them after the raid."

* * *

The snow hit the ground softly as Ariana and Nathaniel walked together around the town. Quietly Ariana reached out her hand and Nathaniel held it in his. Ariana smiled slightly she really needed something like this. Just some time with just her and Nathaniel, they never really got that chance before.

"Nathaniel?" Ariana asked after a while. "What do you think will happen to us after the raid?"

Nathaniel sighed. "I'm not sure, but it will definitely change everything…" he said darkly. "But we will stay together.." he added as he patted her head.

"I'm scared though." Ariana admitted quietly. "On what will happen."

"To be honest…" Nathaniel said. "We all are, We're terrified that we may not see tomorrow." Nathaniel Brought Ariana close "but I will protect you…"

Ariana leaned her head on Nathaniel's shoulder. "I don't want to lose you again."

Nathaniel's white streak blew in the wind as he looked at the tuft of silvered hair, he remembered he was going to make sure that he was strong, strong enough to stare down the ccg reaper, whom he did not know, but he would gladly fight to keep Ariana safe.

"I'll protect you… My Ari…"

Ariana turned to him and embraced him tightly. "I love you."

Nathaniel turned around and realized they absentmindedly walked to a large crumbled building, he remembered this place… they met here. He was beaten and hurt from an attack from… what was that group again? But she found him and cared for him when he was on the verge of demise, she found him here and helped him, she saved his life here.

"Hey" Nathaniel nudged Ariana.

"Hm?"

Thank you…"

1 day left before the raid…

 **AN: Anime: Yay we did it! Another chapter done not sure how many left to go. I'm glad Ender and I were able to get this up a bit we don't like giving you short chapters.**

 **Ender: yeah… it's starting to loose ideas until we start the raid, bad planning on my part, but only one more chapter and I've got Ideas! Thanks for stickin with us!**

 **Both: See you next chapter!**


	16. Outbreak

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Ghoul.**

The dragon's claw group was busy fortifying the base as they prepared for the attack that was imminently approaching.

The captains were overlooking or physically helping the people who were working on the base,j Nathaniel and Ariana were the exceptions however.

"So… You think they're making out?" Ross said to Arden.

Arden laughed "Shit! If they are I won't be surprised!" Arden chuckled as she lifted a sandbag into place.

"You ready?" Nathaniel said shyly.

"yes... " Ariana responded

There was a silence for a minute.

KRAK!

Ariana dashed toward Nathaniel faster than he expected and before he could fully activate his rinkaku Ariana had cut it.

Nathaniel whistled "you're getting fast, looks like I'll have to up the anti…"

One of his eyes faded to normal, leaving one glowing eye. His ukaku spines raised from his back.

"Isn't that cheating?" Ariana asked raising an eyebrow.

Nathaniel shook his head "Me using kakuja is cheating, plus I am just gonna play defensively"

"Alright then." Ariana positioned her Ukaku for attack. Running over to the corner she shot a spike at him.

Nathaniel tried to be as accurate as possible and thrust his abnormal kagune at the spike, shattering it on impact.

"Looks like I need a change of plans." Ariana thought to herself dashing the other way.

Nathaniel then switched to his mom's crescent ukaku for a more effective shield knowing that he wouldn't be able to be that precise with a shard again.

"He's always one step ahead of me." Ariana thought. She looked around she had an idea but needed something to grab on too. Taking notice of a support beam she jumped up and grabbed it. Quickly she swung on it before launching herself at Nathaniel.

Nathaniel looked fast and unfurled his spines and then realized they weren't made for flight. Ariana hit him as this all happened, tackling him to the ground.

"Are you alright?" She asked getting off of him.

"Yeah". Nathaniel laughed "you got me too!".

"Well we are training." Ariana laughed as well.

"Well, I'll be out for a bit. Tell everyone I'm going to the black mask, they'll know what I mean." Nathaniel patted Ariana on the back.

"What's the black mask?" She asked a bit concerned for his safety.

"I'll introduce you later, maybe after the whole raid is cleared up" He said as he put on a black hoodie, shoved a mask into his pocket, and walked out the door

"Please be careful out there!" Ariana called as he left.

"I will!" Nathaniel replied as he walked into the light of the city.

"I hope nothing happens to him." Ariana thought as she left the room but headed upstairs.

* * *

"Hi Ariana do you want some coffee?" Ross asked pointing to a pot of it.

"Sure." Ariana responded as Ross handed her a mug.

Arden walked in. She looked tired out, and the dirt on her face made it obvious that she was done placing sandbags and such.

"Pour me a cup too please!" She gestured to Ross as she grabbed a rag and wiped her face.

"How are the defenses looking?" Ariana asked taking a sip.

"Better than I feel!" Arden chuckled. "And I feel like I could throw a bus!"

"We could use that tomorrow." Ross said leaning against the counter.

"Where's Nathaniel?" Arden asked.

"He said he's going somewhere called the black mask and that you would know where it is." Ariana responded as she sat down.

Arden and Ross' expressions went from colorful to blank.

"Oh…" Arden said as she was silenced by the comment.

Ross silently nodded.

"Do you guys know what he's talking about?" Ariana asked them.

"The black reaper… they're near the top of the triple S rate list." Arden said

"They say that if you were to take a friend or family of the black reaper, then you'd lose a hundred men in return from the black reaper's mourning."

"That sounds terrifying." Ariana said shivering a bit.

"Yeah, but there were reports of her that started 20 years ago so I don't know where they'd be now." Arden said.

"I wonder why Nathaniel would want to see her?" Ross asked taking a sip of his coffee.

Ariana and and Arden remained quiet for a bit before Ariana spoke. "I have no idea."

"What about you Arden?" Ross asked turning towards her.

"The only thing I can think of is that he thinks she can help with the raid but there is no way that she would help some low ranked gang with no connections to her."

"Well I wouldn't call low ranked." Ariana whispered.

"That doesn't matter she still has zero affiliation to us so the chances of her helping us are slim." Adren crossed her arms as she said that.

"Well what will we do until the raid?" Ariana asked.

"We wait…" Ros replied.

"For them to arrive." Ariana huddled in her seat as Ross nodded. Arden leaned on the counter and stared out the window.

After a few hours, the captains heard something… it was the ordered Marching of hundreds of feet. The captains and other ghouls rushed to the window. The CCG had arrived

LET THE WAR BEGIN.

 **AN: Finally we got this done. Sorry for the long wait but I was having computer problems and I only got it back yesterday. I hope this chapter was worth the wait. See you next chapter.**


	17. War

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Ghoul.**

"Alright everyone this is it!" Stephen yelled as the CCG marched forward. "There's no turning back now."

"Time to get those ghouls!" Dylan cheered.

"And my new qinque awaits!" Sam almost took off running but Michelle held her back.

"I don't care if I lose any limbs." Dylan gripped the suitcase with his qinque inside. "The Viper is going down."

"Also don't go back for any teammates!" Sam ordered the lower members of CCG. "The lives of the ghouls we slaughter is worth the lives of us!"

* * *

Ariana looked out the window and immediately she stiffened up. Quickly she turned to Ross and Arden. "The raid has begun!"

"Quickly!" Arden yelled. "Get the other members and have them suit up. We have a home to defend."

Ariana ran as fast as she could. She stopped at every door and warned the people inside that raid had begun.

"Make sure you mask up and evacuate the rest of the younger members." She told some people. "I don't want them getting hurt."

"Of course Miss." One of the ghouls said before he ran off.

"Venom Eggs get to position!" A member of the group yelled into his walkie talkie as she ran upstairs.

"Everything is going well." Ariana thought as she kept running. "I just need to get to my station."

Once at her station Ariana placed her mask on. If there was one time where risks absolutely couldn't be taken it was now. The most important one was keeping her mask on at all times. She knew kakujas could create masks for themselves but she had no idea if she possessed that power. Heck, she couldn't have any kakuja powers at all.

"Operation Mandible is a go!" Arden yelled through the walkie talkie. Immediately the four Venom Eggs jumped from their spots down into the swarm of CCG. Ariana got into position and waited.

"Stage 2 go!" Arden yelled. With those words Ariana along with all the other members of Dragon Claw jumped from the building. Ariana used for wings to ensure a safe landing and to rain shard on the invading CCG. As soon as she touched the group she ran to join the battle. Immediately after she joined she heard gunshots go off.

"They're not holding back." Ariana thought as she stretched her wings as big as they could get. "Then neither will I!"

* * *

Nathaniel stepped to the edge of the tower and looked down.

"Long way down." He said to himself as he looked down.

Straightening back up he let his kagune cocoon him. It proceeded to tip and fall of the building. As it fell it formed a head and limbs before moving to form the tail. When he hit the ground two wings sprouted from his back. The head finishes forming and is raised up. The three eyed dragon roars before entering fight and jumping over everyone to the cars to tear them apart.

* * *

"The Midnight!" Sam cheered with a twisted smile. "Your kagune is mine!"

"And here comes the crazy one. There's always a crazy one." Ariana sighed before turning to her. "You're going to have to kill me first!"

"Oh don't worry your precious little 's the point." Sam deployed her kokaku hammer.

Quickly Ariana flew over her. "Believe me I know."

Sam's smile widened but Ariana didn't back down. She knew if she did then she would be a goner. Sam swung her hammer at Ariana. Quickly Ariana jumped to dodge it. Sam growled as her plan failed. With full force she thrusted the hammer at her. Thinking quickly she surrounded herself with wings she was able to send the hammer back to Sam. Taking advantage of her distractedness Ariana fired a spike at her and pinned her to the ground. Out of the corner of her eye Ariana noticed a younger ghoul approaching.

"It's okay." Ariana turned back to Sam and fired another spike her. "I got this."

With her hammer Sam was able to break the spikes of her.

"This one is dangerous." Ariana said to the younger ghoul who started to back away. "Not to mention batshit insane!"

"That describes you better." Sam laughed as Ariana jumped up to the air again. "That's cheating!"

"There's no rules in war." Ariana fired a few more spikes at her. One was able to graze Sam's arm who took no notice of it.

Sam lifted her hammer and prepared to deliver a crushing blow as the hammer began to swell. Ariana quickly ducked down and the hammer only hit the edge of her ukaku.

Ariana swiped at Sam's front, leaving a huge gash, Sam still kept swinging as she yelled angrily "you're mine!"

* * *

Nathaniel took an armored truck and threw it into the crowd of Doves. Smashing a few under it or scaring them bad, the truck rolled until it slammed into another, because of all the damage it had taken however it started to catch fire. "Run!" Screamed one of the investigators. Nathaniel slashed through "10? 20? Ahh… I've lost count…"

He eventually met resistance when a sword cut his hand off. He roared in anger. He turned his head to see one of the investigators that took his previous home.

Michelle looked at the towering monster that leered down at her. She activated her other sword as it burst into a wavy design and then hardened into a rigid blade. The creature bowed down and it's wings had spread. "Hm?" She took a more defensive stance as she noticed the wings crystalising. "Oh boy…" she rolled behind a piece of building that had fallen from the battle. She stood about 2 feet back and heard the sound of stone being pierced by the spikes one missed the building and landed beside her "2 meteres long… 6 inch diameter? Damn… that's huge" she then felt something gently tap her back, one of the spikes had broke through enough to lightly touch her back from where she hid. When she looked towards the monster again he had regenerated his hand. She dashed toward him and started to slash the best with her swords, he swatted at her and threw her back, she then fired shards from one of her swords. They were kind of small compared to his but they seemed to do a little bit of damage. Michelle went in for another slice but she had realized she had forgotten something… then it hit her. THWACK!

She forgot about his tail and was slashed bad. "Dammit… not again…" she started losing consciousness as her blood pooled on the ground. The Three Eyed Dragon gave her a famished look. He bared his teeth and opened his mouth as he slowly made his way toward her.

"NO!" A voice roared

Stephen put his quinque in front of Michelle and propped the dragons mouth open. He used this as a distraction to get Michelle away and he became the Dragon's opponent. But when he went to go and fight it it had fled up the tower. "Damn…"

Arden ran forward, past the fight and was stopped by Dylan, as their eyes met they both activated their respective weapons. Arden unleashed a long rigid tail and Dylan released a long kokaku great sword. Dylan snapped on the offensive and swung his large weapon around attempting to cut her in half,Arden started to dodge his swings and bounced around him using her bikaku.

"It's to heavy for you…" she muttered after dodging a swing and clinging upside down to a light post with her kagune.

"Well I'll still kill you with it!" Dylan yelled

Arden pointed behind him, as he turned he saw a giant part of her kagune behind him, surrounding his escape.

Dylan looked at her kagune and noticed the tail was in fact wrapped once around the top and then ran down the pole

"You planned thi-" CRASH! Arden's bikaku wrapped around and then sent him flying. He flew through a window before landing in an office building, he only had time to get up and turn before the kagune jumped at him again, he raised the giant sword and the strike barely missed him. He then tried to slam down on the Wolf's shoulder with the sword, it landed beautifully. As the strike hit he was reassured it was a good one as blood sprayed out from the wound

"Gaurgh! You son of a…" Arden said between clenched teeth before puncturing a support column. The column tore some of the upper floors down with it.

Dylan chuckled and raised the blade which promptly flattened and became a shield as he blocked the debris "heh, got anything I may consider a threa-" before he could finish his sentence, he was thrown again like a plush doll.

"Seriously, shut the hell up! We're fighting! You're gonna die!" Arden growled at the bloodied man.

Stephen tapped his staff on the ground "how about a new adversary then?" He leered at Arden.

Arden turned to the new foe as her shoulder finished closing up completely.

There was a mutual moment of silence.

Then like that they shot at each other like bullets and the fight began. Arden thrusted her kagune at him, as he went to block it hit the ground in front of him and Arden vaulted over him and threw a kick at his ribs, he blocked with the back of the staff, which then shot two of the three tendrils at her, she jumped with another kagune assist and that's when the third tendril found it's way through her wrist and forced her to the ground, the other tendrils then took any open limbs and pinned them as well

"Agh!" She began to panic as her kagune flailed wildly, slamming the ground and thrusting out at anything it could reach until it was pinned with the spear end of Stephen's Quinque.

Stephen the walked over and retrieved the sword from his partner and walked back over to Arden

"Die you monster"

Arden felt a tearing pain in the middle of her back, then she started to feel a bit cold, she started to feel less and less pain

"So this is what it feels like…

She looked at Stephen, who looked a bit sad

Arden then peered towards her back and saw the sword driven through her back

"To die… I'm sorry… everyone… I couldn't… make it… If only the world wasn't a cruel place..."

She then slowly slumped down as she exhaled one last time.

Stephen yanked the the sword out of her back "The wolf has been exterminated…"

Ariana stood from where she was. She was frozen at the sight. Arden laid there motionless and Ariana knew what had happened.

"Ar-den." She said before the world around her went to darkness.

From the blackness a voice whispered to her "You seem scared."

"Who, who are you?" Ariana asked looking around but only saw darkness.

"A friend." the voice responded.

"What do you want from me?" She asked cowering in fear.

"Only for you to be stronger and to unlock your full potential."

"How do I do that?" Ariana feared she already knew the answer.

"Simple, by unleashing your kakuja." The shadows cleared and Ariana saw an outline, It looked like her, but something was different… a shelled mask with teeth and a jaw protruded from the alternate face, she was aware of something… her mind was beginning to crack.

"No." She said starting to back away. "I don't want this."

"Oh yes!" the figure said as she tackled Ariana and wrapped herself around Ariana

"You have no idea what I want." Ariana struggled to get the alternate form of her off herself.

"But I do!" the form started to merge to her "I am your most Feral and savage thoughts, you want to kill that man!"

"Stop!" Ariana screamed struggling even more. "Stop!"

"HE'S TAKEN YOUR FRIEND!" the shadow roared "A DEBT MUST BE PAID"

"And what will killing him do?" Ariana stopped for a moment. "It will just be another death. Then more will come and we'll just lose more friends."

"But we stop it." Ariana looked at her alternate form. "Now you're just a soldier, but if you combine with me you'll be a threat no Dove has ever seen! All you have to do is trust me."

"I trust you!" Ariana screamed as the two forms became one.

Ariana felt her body twitching. She could feel a shell wrapping around her body. She had no idea what was going to happen. All she knew was that no more of her friends were going to die tonight.

* * *

Nathaniel dove down using his crescent wings, and landed on a soldier, shattering his spine on impact, made known from the very audible sound, he then started to fire at the advancing squad, as he guarded a frozen Ariana "Midnight! Wake up!" he, deployed hi Rinkaku and defended against a few who tried to charge him head on, but he was losing ground. The numbers of the dragons claw began to shrink as members were getting injured, killed or helping injured retreat.

"Venom eggs! On me!" he shouted, the four abnormal ghouls, ran forward but were exhausted from the fight already, they began to help Nathaniel push them back, until Sam approached, she wore a twisted smile as she proceeded, she got closes to one of the venom eggs and smashed his head with her hammer, the venom egg fell to the ground as she didn't expect there to be a sudden break in her line and fell convulsing, her head was hurt bad, she fell over and lie motionless

"Damn it!" Nathaniel yelled, he then began to grow until the three eyed dragon had returned to the fight, he took over the fallens position and swiped through some of the investigators, he met resistance at Sam and, grabbed her, she started to stop smiling "H-hey, HEY! Put me down!" She started to struggle, and flail, as the dragon tightened his grip and bared his teeth at the investigator. Sam began to start panicking as she wildly started to his at the dragon's arm with her hammer. There was a cracking noise that came from her torso, followed by 3 more, she started to move less and eventually just watched helplessly.

There was a flash of light, as the dragons fingers were cut open and Sam fell out

"Don't expect me to always be put out, I don't expect to again." Michelle reapproached the Dragon.

"The real fight starts now.." Michelle activated her swords again and ran at the Dragon, the Dragon, thrust a hand at Michelle, Michelle jumped up and ran up his arm, slicing parts of him of as she ran, she moved astonishingly fast for a human. The Dragon roared and let out a blast of fiery wind

"Fire RC!" yelled michelle. "What are you?!"

Michelle responded to the fact that bringing the Dragon down was a necessity. She swung from his back to his underbelly by striking one of her swords into his shoulder, and using the other to cut open his underbelly

The Dragon screeched in agony as a blast of hot fire Rc blew everywhere, driving back any doves near him, Michelle was also caught in the blast.

Ariana started to move again, a purple shell clad to her back and a metallic jawblade and facemask clung to her face, her wings, became rigid and crystallized as they bound to her arms which grew shards all the way down, her back had an almost shell-like property. She jumped up into the air and to a wall and began to dash at blinding speed, she jumped around from surface to surface like a maniac, as the CCG agents began to enter a ring of death, as soon as they stepped in they were picked off, killed brutally

"oh shit! Run!" one of the agents yelled "cover fire!" shouted another

Ariana giggled. "You doves are so easy to kill! Gimmie something more fun!"

She dashed at one of the agents locking the metal jaw around his head and clamped down on it. She devoured parts from the head she crushed and kept moving. She ran until she hit something… metal… Stephen stood right in front of her with the broad sword

"You… It's you…" Ariana gritted her teeth as she drooled like a deranged beast as her fury manifested a physical form in her kagune, the shards grew larger and more rigid, She stood to avenge her friend's death.

Stephen tried to hit her with the Quinque but was too slow, Ariana dashed out of the way and struck the blade with her kagune, shattering the blade. Stephen pulled his staff quinque out of the ground and thrust forward, which she blocked with her arm, which had been wrapped by her wing, she rushed at him and slashed him at his shoulder

"Urk!" Stephen grunted taking the hit. He switched to his other hand and tried to get her with the tendril end, she dodged the first and second, before grabbing the third in her jaw, ripping it clean out of the quinque, and damaging one of the other tendrils. She rushed close and ripped the quinque out of his hands and shattered the staff with a reckless flurry of strikes. Stephen stood dumbfounded.

"You're mine!" Ariana roared. She thrust her arm straight through his stomach, he spat up blood and went limp. Stephen's body hit the ground as Ariana's mind raced and contorted until her reality was warped

"NOW WHAT SHULD I DO"

"CORPZ LOK FUNIE"

"I BET THYE ALLLE BLIID THE SAEEM"

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH"

Ariana began to laugh psychotically and the kakuja kagune began to burrow into her skin.

The CCG had Started to retreat after they saw Stephen had died.

"What do you mean he's dead?!"

"I don't know! Some crazy ghoul killed him! Let's just get out of here!"

Michelle had carried Dylan back to one of the trucks as Sam followed

"So that's it? We're just gonna leave him?!" Sam yelled at Michelle

"It's all we can do…" Michelle said trying not to break face. "He would have wanted us to live…"

The trucks rushed away as the Dragon roared.

Once the trucks were out of sight, Nathaniel's dragon form was dispersed almost immediately.

He made a mad dash at Ariana and started to get her out of the kagune, he peeled it off piece by piece as fast as he could until she began to come back to reality.

"W-what… happened?" Ariana asked shakenly. Nathaniel helped her up and let her look around. "Did you do that?"

Nathaniel stood silently and shook his head.

"If you didn't do all this then who did?" Ariana asked more confused than before.

"You.." he answered emotionlessly. "You bore the weight of a half developed kakuja"

"But I've only eaten two ghouls I can't be that strong." She said inspecting the damage around her.

"They were both kakuja, making the process much faster" Nathaniel looked to a certain corpse.

"I knew I shouldn't have eaten that ghoul." She hurried her hand in her hands.

Nathaniel silently walked to the corpse and picked it up. He carried it in and turned to Ariana. "Come on… we need to inform the others we won.."

"I'm a monster." She said oblivious to what he said as her hands shook.

Nathaniel laid the corpse down and hugged Ariana. "if your a monster, then at least we are the same…"

"I didn't want this." She cried into Nathaniel's shoulder. "I just didn't want to lose any more of my friends."

"I didn't want the things like this to happen to me either" He curled his white streak around his finger.

"We can still save a friend…" he said to her as he went and picked up the corpse again, he then picked a radio up from a nearby table. "Call in Jeriquois"

"We can save Arden." Ariana said hopefully.

"Sadly, she's at rest… she's one we can't save…"

"Please tell me I didn't eat her." Ariana said horrified at the thought.

"No, you tried to protect her, you were hellbent on doing so…" Nathaniel smiled a bit. "She'll be buried here in peace, i hope"

"Then who can we save?" Ariana asked standing up.

Nathaniel turned the corpse to the side, it was Stephen.

"Did I do that?" Nathaniel nodded in response. "How can we save him? I shot him in the stomach."

"I'll tell you once we have time, to talk" Nathaniel said as he started to run

Ariana looked at Arden's body and picked it up. She started walking in the direction of home. "We'll bury you and you'll never be disturbed again. I promise."

* * *

Nathaniel opened up a door deep in the tower which had been repurposed as an operating room and a doctor greeted him.

"Hello Nathaniel" the doctor said with a thick accent.

"Hello Jeriquois"

Ariana walked in quietly. She had no idea what was going on but curiosity got the best of her.

"Well.." Jeriquois said "let us begin with the operation…"

Ariana noticed the corpse of an unfamiliar ghoul on a table on the far corner.

"Nathaniel what is going on?" She asked still looking at the unfamiliar corpse.

"We are going to try to turn Stephen into a ghoul…" he responded.

"What?" Ariana practically screamed.

"This is risky, we should let Jeriquois work on this alone" Nathaniel walked and led Ariana out as he closed the door behind both of them.

"Why are you doing this?" Ariana asked as they walked. "This could ruin Stephen's life."

"It's either his life is changed, or he stays dead, I want to hang out with my buddy a bit longer and see him live a fuller life"

"I'm not sure how I feel about bit I'll trust your decision."

"How about we unwind?" Nathaniel asked leading Ariana to a bath house in the tower.

"I think I need that after tonight."

The!

They slipped in together and closed the door.

Ross had walked back to inform everyone of the victory and brought them back in to try to settle back in, the casualties were immense...

Sam sulked and looked out the window of the CCG HQ "so… do you Stephen is in a better place…?"

Michelle looked out the window "I hope he is…"

Dylan looked down at the table derarilly "may he rest in peace…"

In the Tower the empty room contains only a corpse, until, an opal eye glows a red tinge around the room as it opens

 _ **SLIOPSEHTOGROTCIVEHTOT**_

 **AN: Anime: Wow we finally finished the Raid. It was a crazy ride and it was all planned for this arc is what I'll call this. Time for the next one. See you next chapter.**


	18. Changes

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Ghoul.**

"I am so mad right now!" Sam slammed her fist on the table between sobs. "The Midnight's kagune should be mine, and then midnight had to kill special investigator Stephen!"

"Stephen just died and the first thing you mention is you didn't get a new fancy toy?" Dylan yelled.

"I brought it up, it's sad." Sam defended herself.

"The death of our friend and coworker means more than not getting a quinque." Dylan turned away from her.

"Well, he's at rest, he can watch from the afterlife." Michelle intervened calmly as she walked in.

* * *

Stephen jerked up and awake

"Where… am I?" He looked around then his eyes darted to his stomach. There was no more hole.

"Am I… dead?"

He got up slowly and walked around, lots of organs in jars lined shelves hung on the walls, a corner held a corpse of some kind on a table across the room.

"I'm… not… dead?"

He felt strange, but he also felt hungry "I'm famished, I wonder if there's anything to eat"

He looked around and then looked out the window "why do I feel like… I know this place?"

He looked down and saw piles of debris and blood stains in the melting snow.

"Wait… I-... shouldn't be here…"

He snuck downstairs and took routes that seemed abandoned, he eventually snuck undetected to the door. "Whew, I could go for a doughnut…" he walked toward the markets in the city trying to stay out of view of the tower as to not alert of his escape

He reached a shop and ordered 2 doughnuts and walked to an alleyway to enjoy his pastries in peace and quiet.

"Ahh… now let's dig in…" he took a bite of the fresh doughnut. He immediately tasted the worst thing in his life as he ran down the alley and puked

"What did they do to that doughnut?! It was a fresh made!"

He looked at the doughnut, it looked exactly the same as the doughnut he brought the last time he was there, it tasted amazing last time. Why was it enough to make his stomach of steel quiver in fear?

He took another bite and immediately spat it out when the taste met his mouth again, he tried the other doughnut, same thing, he felt like he bit into a moldy sponge.

"Why?" He asked in fear "agrh!" He threw the bag in anger and it hit the wall. He walked over to the puddle it landed in, he looked at it and then saw his reflection, a crimson glint decorated his left eye he screamed and fell backwards. He ran into a bathroom in one of the shops, it was a one room bathroom, so he could have privacy to see his reflection. A man with his face stared back with a ghoul eye in his left socket. Stephen was getting scared. He saw an unfamiliar face in the mirror rather than his own and it frightened him. He ran out and to the tower using a discreet way to get in.

As he raced his mind mimicked him

"Why am I a ghoul? Why am I not dead? Did the shop clerk see it? Why was I in the tower of ghouls?" He ran in and a group of ghouls looked at him. They didn't react, they acted normally.

"What? But, I'm…"

He looked around and ran back up to the room

"Please tell me he didn't jump out the window." A female voice, probably another ghoul said staring out the window.

Stephen looked and tried to speak by but he stepped on a loose board and tripped making a loud sound, he rolled over and slid back until he felt a cold wall behind him

"Huh?" The female ghoul turned around. Stephen saw her face, it was Ariana.

"Y-y-you…" Stephen said terrified "you reported your own kind that one time, you ate food… you… were normal…" Stephen said, scared out of his mind.

"I did what I had to do to protect my friends. And I sort of threw up the pastry after we talked." Ariana rubbed the back of her head.

He grabbed his head and his eyes started to water. "What am I?" He curled up into a ball

"A… ghoul..." Ariana struggled to say.

Stephen shook his head and started to mutter "this is a nightmare… I'll wake up right?"

"No." Ariana looked down.

He curled up tight and huddled in the space he was in "I'm so hungry… what do I eat?" He barely managed to say

"We have coffee do you like that?" Ariana sat down next to him. "We can only consume that and human flesh."

Stephen looked up at Ariana with terror in his eyes

"I'll never eat another human… I'm no cannibal…" he said "I need something solid! Is there anything besides flesh?"

"No there isn't" Nathaniel walked down the hall toward Stephen.

"No… NO!" Stephen was terrified, furious, and miserable all at once "we're best friends! How?"

"Yes and that's why I saved you," Nathaniel remarked "you overlooked my ghoul nature. That's why… you never questioned me because you were so trusting… I was happy that a human befriended me… now we can see eye to eye…"

"You… did this..?"

It was the only way you would live. You don't deserve to die yet…"

Stephen got up slowly and gave Nathaniel a hug.

"Well thanks for the live saving" Stephen stood back after and then moved forward and slugged Nathaniel in the jaw. "And that's for turning me into a ghoul…"

Nathaniel cracked his jaw back into place and nodded "I expected something like that." He said half smiling so your hungry?"

"Starving" Stephen mumbled.

Nathaniel gave him a jar of sugar cubes. "Here… a friend taught me this can help out, there was a similar situation with a guy there."

Stephen looked at the cubes "what's in them?"

"I'll be straight with you, it's human blood, we will have to ease you into eating flesh over time"

Stephen squirmed a bit at the idea but started to calm down "so what now?"

Nathaniel shrugged "I'm not sure, but I'll be out for awhile on patrol. You can look around a bit, Ariana, would you mind showing him around?"

"Of course." Ariana started to leave the room. "Follow me Stephen."

Nathaniel nodded and then walked away

Stephen followed Ariana obediently.

"So right now we are of course in the hospital wing. Here all of our injured members can rest up. Currently all the rooms are full."

Stephen poked at the jars "what are these for?

"Mostly consumption sometimes they're used for emergency transplants." Ariana looked at the jars as well.

Stephen nodded in acknowledgment.

"Come one I'll show you the bunks." Ariana led Stephen upstairs. "So all of our upper floors are reserved for sleeping in."

"All of them?" Stephen asked in disbelief.

"Most of them." Ariana said. "The uppermost floor is an observatory along with captain bunks."

"So what am I?" Stephen asked.

"A guest" Ariana replied

Stephen tilted his head "could I become a member?"

"Do you want to?" Ariana asked. "You do realize you will have to kill humans."

"Well… I do owe ya guys…" Stephen said blankly "I'll help where I can"

"I mean we could use new members but I don't know if I can add new members. I'm sure Nathaniel will be cool with it, he is our leader."

Stephen nodded. "I'll try to help the best I can on this side of things"

"You just have to wait for Nathaniel to get back then you can be an official member."

"Here is the fighting room." Ariana said after leading Stephen downstairs. "Here we prepare for fighting Dove or even other ghouls."

"Oh" he noticed two ghouls occupying the room sparring. They were using an ukaku and a rinkaku kagune

"Maybe someday they could join the Children of the Night." Ariana said to herself.

"What's that?"

"Did I say that out loud?" Stephen nodded in response. "They're my team. Or were my team. The raid killed four of them. Kuk even died saving Ayame. Poor thing is probably scarred. She turns thirteen in two days."

Stephen heard all of this and had a passing thought "is there any reason we started hunting them? Is it just because they're ghouls? I can't believe I never thought about this… how unfair we are… or _they_ are, I'm not an investigator anymore am I?" Stephen scratched his chin while he watched the ghouls fight

"So… how do I summon my kagune?" Stephen turned to Ariana "is there a button I'm supposed to push?" He joked.

"Huh I never really thought about it. It just sort of happens." Ariana stepped back and thought about it and her bat wings were summoned. "See? It just sort of does."

Stephen tried to focus on it but something was bothering him

"I have to ask…" Stephen started "what Alias do you go by?"

"Midnight…" Ariana backed away from him.

Stephen and Ariana stood still and silent. Staring at each other.

"You… killed me?" He asked a bit nervously.

Ariana was silent.

He looked a bit regretful. "Well… you had a right to I guess…"

"I don't know what happened. I just went crazy after I saw Arden die. I honestly have no memory of any of it."

He shuddered and tried to Change the subject back "so let's try to summon my kagune…"

He tried to focus and he felt a jolt rush up his back.

"There's a mist coming out of your shirt that's a good sign." Ariana pointed behind Stephen.

"But why isn't it activated yet?" Stephen waved his hand through the mist.

"Maybe because you haven't eaten yet. I have trouble summoning my kagune when I haven't eaten in awhile."

Stephen debated quietly to himself about eating flesh then turned to Ariana "do you think I should eat flesh then..?"

"Maybe but you don't have to eat anything right away."

"We'll if I need to live like this for the rest of my life then I should try it…" he shrugged.

"Well maybe we could start with only a piece of it." Ariana started to leave. "Come on I'll show you to the kitchen."

Stephen followed into the "kitchen" a massive pile of human corpses in a cold, dry room.

"You don't have to come in." Ariana said in the doorway. "I can get you piece."

Stephen walked in and looked at the bodies. They smelled amazing. He grabbed an arm gingerly and tried to pull by the arm wouldn't come off. He looked to Ariana with a look that indicated that he needed help.

"Hang on." Ariana walked over before twisting the arm and pulling some of the flesh and handed it to Stephen.

He took the flesh and slowly put it in his mouth. The taste was even better than the smell, at that moment he understood why binge eaters like to eat so much. He grabbed the rest of the arm and tore the flesh off and ate it until he held only bones in his hand, he felt great after that as he was satisfied for now, but he knew he may be able to adapt okay. "This is my new life… I plan to enjoy it" he said as he threw the bones away

"That was unexpected." Ariana said looking at the scene

"Let's try now" he said as he walked down to the fighting room

"Are you sure about this? you haven't even been a ghoul for a day." Ariana followed him to the fighting room.

"I want to learn this fast, you probably learned young, am I right?" Stephen asked

"But I've a ghoul since birth you were thrown into it with no choice."

"I was reborn today, I need to make the most of it…"

"You are taking this surprisingly well."

He focused and felt the spark up his back again, It started to emerge, it leapt from his shoulder blade, a curved and rigid spike.

"A koukaku… I'm a koukaku" he looked and used his knowledge from the CCG. I'm

"Wow." Ariana said in awe of it.

"I wanna test this…" he said, looking around the room.

"Hmm." Ariana looked around a bit. "Use me."

"Ok… let's get ready" Stephen said in a guard "I'm ready." He raised the blade and set it like a lance.

Ariana deployed her ukaku and spread them outwards. "I'm ready too."

Stephen stuck the blade into the ground and prepared for an attack from Ariana.

Ariana smiled. This was going to be fun. She jumped up in the air above Stephen.

Stephen jumped up as high as he could and swiped at Ariana.

"Not to bad." Ariana said as she landed. Decided to test him she fired one of her spiked at him.

He instinctively brought up his blade and the thick blade blocked it

"You sure do know your stuff." Ariana straightened herself up a bit.

"This thing is like a thick shell, with a sharp edge" Stephen slid his hand across the shell-like surface "it's heavy but sturdy"

He ran at Ariana with a thrust

Ariana ran towards him and launched herself swiping at him with her ukaku.

He stood firm taking the hit with no intention to dodge, he still thrust the blade forward

He was cut but his body had adapted pretty fast and he was already a bit harder to cut through, Ariana also noticed that the wound was visibly regenerating.

"Hmm his RC cells are doing their job." She thought to herself. "But I'm still not going easy on him."

He looked at his chest and that he had healed fast.

"Hmm…" He held his blade up like it was a shield and slowly started forward.

Ariana took notice and decided to fire one of her spiked at it to test its strength.

The kagune cracked due to Ariana's shards being newly kakuja but it stood firm.

"This is fun!" Stephen yelled to Ariana.

"I'm glad you like it. You're going to need to defend yourself against-" She stopped.

"...anyone…" he finished for her as he stopped, and his kagune deteriorated "how about we call it quits?"

"It's up you." Ariana's ukaku disappeared.

"Yeah, i'll go get more food, I already worked up an appetite from the fight

"You don't need that much food. A body can last us a month." She explained to him.

"I only ate up to an elbow" he chuckled " that's not a body, I'm gonna go find the rest of it"

They walked up at the doorway and the viper walked in through the door.

Stephen fixed his eyes on the viper "wait…"

He stared at the viper.

The viper took his mask off

"Nathaniel?"

"I can't believe you didn't find me out with a half mask" Nathaniel scratched the back of his neck and chuckled.

"That reminds me… I've always wondered, why do ghouls wear masks? Is it more than hiding from the CCG or is it just that simple?"

"It's as simple as you think" Nathaniel replied "we wear them to hide from the investigators"

"Oh.." Stephen responded

"That reminds me, you'll need a mask, What do you want for it?" Nathaniel walked up and pulled a notepad from his room.

"Well I'm not sure… what should I ask for in a mask?" Stephen scratched his head

"What are you into?" Nathaniel tapped the notepad.

"Well…" Stephen scratched his head "I think CRC canisters will be a problem if I want to be a juggernaut. I'm gonna need to counter it."

"Ok…" Nathaniel skittered notes down on the paper. "That could be simple to make, but for now, try to find a spare until it's done."

Ariana walked into the room. "Stephen did you find everything alright? Oh sorry I didn't know you were busy with Nathaniel."

They both smiled

"We were done anyway, it's fine"

"I just wanted to make sure Stephen was doing alright." Ariana explained.

"He's fitting in very fast and very well, especially despite his previous occupation as an investigator."

"Do we know what group he's going to be in?" Ariana asked out of curiosity.

Nathaniel patted Stephen on the back "Stephen will be part of my team for awhile, until he can run his own group."

"Got it." Ariana said before leaving. "I'm going to make sure Ayame is okay."

* * *

Ariana walked into the hospital wing. There the twelve year laid with an oxygen mask on her face. Next to her laid Ella the one eyed from Nathaniel's group.

"Ayame." Ariana said walking in. "How are doing?"

"Is Kuk alright?" Ayame asked weakly and Ariana shook her head. "Is it just you and me left?"

"No Sora survived with minor injuries. Sadly everyone else perished."

"What are we going to do?"

"We're going to rebuild the Children of the Night. Most of the younger ghouls have been training and when they come of age they could join us." At that moment her radio beeped. "I got to go."

"Before you do can you tell me is it true that there's a dove here?" Ayame lifted her blanket.

"He's our friend now Ayame. Nathaniel made him a one eye like Ella, he's with us now."

Stephen opened the door and walked in "Ariana, were on patrol duty." He then put on a devil mask

"Got it." Ariana said standing up as Ayame covered herself a little more. "Don't worry Ayame you'll get better soon."

Ariana waved goodbye and left with Stephen.

* * *

The city was sprinkled with lights as Ariana led the 2 man team.

"Okay so we got to try to avoid the Doves." Ariana started to explain. "Even though you have a mask now you never know what could happen."

"Roger that" Stephen replied as he runs, until he's torn away by something, he yelled out as he fell to the ground.

"You okay?" Ariana stopped running and went over to him.

She was then met by a ghoul wearing a blue jay mask, the ghoul had a large kakaku, it looked like a pair of metal wings,she stood between Ariana and Stephen.

"Excuse me." Ariana said to the ghoul politely. "I would like to help my friend."

"Who do you think took his feet out?" The ghoul said sarcastically with a female voice. "He smells like a morsel to eat, and I've been waiting a while to eat." She kicked Stephen in the ribs.

Stephen grunted in pain but it seemed to be superficial at the moment, or it was healing too fast.

"You wouldn't want to eat him." Ariana started. "What you smell is cologne he wears to hide from doves."

"Well whatever it is it'll still be enough to satisfy me." The ghoul chuckled.

"I know how about we eat him first." The voice from the back of her head said.

"No"

"He smells tantalizing, and he's still half human, Plus, we saw him first. I bet he'd taste great"

"Last time I listened to you I killed Stephen. Is that what you want to kill him again?"

"Then how about the blue jay bitch?" The voice said dryly "she's annoying and she should be quiet."

"Stephen is right behind her. If I kill her I could also hurt Stephen."

"So? Eat both of them!" The voice began to cackle.

"Stephen is our friend."

"We've killed him once maybe he'll survive" the voice says excitedly

The voice feels like it trying to constrict Ariana's mind.

"That is not a risk I want to take." Ariana crossed her arms.

Ariana snapped out of it when a blade grazed her chee kand the blue jay had taken a fighting stance, it looked like Stephen was knocked out and his head was bleeding.

"Stephen." She said looking at him.

"You seemed distracted so I took the liberty" the blue jay said headstrong

"Come on kill that bitch." the voice said. "Before she kills Stephen first."

"Fine you win but we're not going crazy this time." Ariana allowed her to be consumed by her kakuja.

Ariana's head filled up with distorted laughter from the voice. She started to fade from consciousness but fought to stay awake, she felt like she was only able to spectate.

Her wings wrapped around her arms making 2 large clawed appendages, the mask covered her face and jaw, leaving room for her mouth. A more garbled voice rang in her ears

"LETZ KIILE THAA BLUU JAAAAAIY"

Ariana laughed crazily als she ran toward the blue jay. The blue jay jumped and attempted to kick her in the face, the kakuja mask was so hard however, that Ariana thrust her head toward the kick and snapped the blue jays leg like a stick. The blue jays eyes widened from surprise, fear, and pain.

She cried out in pain as she slammed into the ground and her leg laid limp and twisted

"THAT'S WHAT YOU DERSEVVEVE!" Ariana laughed.

She tried to crawl away as her attitude had completely shifted and she used her kagune to try to get away until Ariana grabbed her arm and swing her like a ragdoll and she is slammed against a wall and is stunned, she stops moving and has lost consciousness

"YOU WANT MY FRIEND NOW I WANT YOU!" Ariana lifted the ghoul to her mouth.

Ariana opened her mouth and then was hit in the face by something, a man with a hyena mask slammed Ariana in the face with a bikaku kagune, her head was protected by the mask but it cracked open a bit, at first nothing happened, then Ariana started to loose her mind and screamed as her mask started spraying RC cells and her kagune started to go crazy and her normal bat like wings formed raggedly and in the center of each was what looked like an eye. Her Rc cells were emitted at a rate she wasn't used to and the kagune started to bubble as Ariana fell over she saw the Hyena staring at her with the blue jay over his shoulder

"Interesting…" He looks at her and then flees with the blue jay.

Ariana's kagune deteriorated as she slipped into unconsciousness.

 **An: Ender: Heyyyyyy… funny thing… the chapter started to grow faster than expected and we started chapter 19 Lol! We'll probably have a chapter out early next time! See ya soon!**


	19. A New Enemy

**Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Ghoul**

Ariana woke up back at the tower, she looked to her side and Nathaniel had been waiting next to her for her to wake up

He smiled "thank goodness, you're alright…"

"What happened?" Ariana rubbed her head.

"You passed out in an alley during your patrol, Stephen carried you here." Nathaniel lays his hand on hers "what happened?"

"All I remember is this crazy ghoul try to eat Stephen and I had to go kakuja to save him."

"Could you elaborate?" Nathaniel asked as he began to look a bit worried "this ghoul could become a problem, especially if she could take you both down alone"

"She said Stephen smelled good and she had an Kokaku and a blue jays mask. There may have a second one but I fell unconscious shortly afterwards."

Nathaniel suddenly looked very serious

"This is a dire situation, two rogue ghouls can lead to downfall in a group if they're calculated"

Nathaniel gently kisses her forehead and walks out, he goes to a meeting room where Stephen, Okazi and Ross are sitting at a table as Nathaniel sits down

"So, I have some news and I think everyone should be filled in…"

After the meeting Nathaniel stops Stephen

"Hey I got your mask ready" he beckons to follow

Stephen follows to a room with a large craft area, on a wall is a ton of masks hung up, Nathaniel picks one from off the wall, it's a gas mask with a polar lens on one side and a clear lens in the other

And a cool looking design.

"It looks great" Stephen looked at it before putting it on, the filter definitely worked and the mask was made with a lightweight material so it's like it's part of his face "I like it"

Nathaniel smiled "Well it's better than this" he held up the broken demon mask from the other day.

"Yeah, sorry about that" Stephen said awkwardly

"It's fine!" Nathaniel laughed "I got that mask from another shop, it was… something like… hissy? Hiyesee? I don't really remember, but it was a present from the ghoul that taught me how to make masks, it was a bit ordinary." Nathaniel shrugged.

"Well it's great" Stephen took the mask off and put in his pocket. "So thanks again"

Nathaniel smiled "well I'll be going, you should start your patrol route again, but keep cautious, your opponent can be anywhere and anyone, keep on guard"

"Aye-aye cap'n" Stephen joked as he walked out.

He went and casually explored the city, he planned to go for a rooftop run later on, maybe with backup again, hoping for a different result. He chuckled to himself

"The definition of insanity…" he walked to a coffee shop he liked before he was a ghoul, it was a little mom and pop style coffee shop, but he couldn't help but notice, it smelled different, a new scent filled the air, it wasn't just a pleasant aroma of coffee, but something else, two conflicting smells. He couldn't quite put his finger on what it was until he noticed a face in the corner, he saw Michelle and Sam sitting and talking, his first thought was to walk out of their line of sight as they hadn't spotted him yet, he did so casually and sat at a booth, he snuck another look, he stared for a minute

"Those were my friends, and now… we must never come face to face… what a sad thought…" he sat back down and waited to see them leave, the door was a few tables down in front of his table, they would need to turn their backs to see him, he had a coffee and got a desert menu.

As they walked out he spotted them and his plan fell into place. He grabbed the desert menu and hid his face, as insurance if they looked back, he then waited 5 minutes and got up to hand the desert menu back

"Not today, I'm not hungry" He walked out with his hoodie on and the hood up. "Alrighty, time to go…" he walked into a place where people couldn't see him and scaled the building, he then put the gas mask on and waited a few minutes, nobody showed up to assist.

"Well it's fine, I need to learn how to fend for myself anyway"

He ran downtown and kept doing a foot check from last time, but would try to keep his eyes up for most of it, he ran around until he saw a ghoul sitting on the rooftops like they were waiting, he walked forward with caution, eyes locked on the ghoul, they were focused on something, he heard noises from below too, he looked down and saw Okazi, fighting a ghoul who wore a black robe and a cloth mask, the both looked to be ukakus, but the assassin looking one was winning by the looks of it.

"Damn…" Stephen muttered

The ghoul on the edge got up and turned around. They had a mask that depicted a smiling demon with a stitched shut mouth. They just stared at Stephen.

Stephen realized something was wrong. He activated a kokaku blade and spun around, he hit a large rinkaku tendril with the blade, it seemed like a sneak attack

"It's on!" Stephen growled as he took a defensive stance.

He ran at the ghoul who shot the tendril at him, he slid underneath and slashed the ghouls knees.

The ghoul fell for a minute before using their kagune to stay up.

"Let's see you stand now!" Stephen ran over to and slashed the rinkaku, but by the time he turned around the ghoul's legs had regenerated.

"Damn… your fast!"

He raised his kagune up

"So I'll be faster…"

He slashed and stabbed multiple times at the ghoul, who dodged most of them, the ghoul was definitely hit by a few strikes, but it appeared to have healed up.

"You can't last forever!" Stephen yelled

Apparently, him and the ghoul fought for awhile and weren't going to try to be quiet, this became a detriment when they saw a helicopter fly over and unleash machine gun fire.

"Shit! We gotta go grim!" He yelled down to Okazi, but when he looked Okazi wasn't there.

The ghoul took advantage of the distraction and slammed stephen in the back of the head, knocking him off the roof onto the ground. He tried to get up but was stabbed through the abdomen and pinned to the ground like that.

The ghoul stood over him, about to kill him he presumed.

Before they could demonstrate their intentions to Stephen they were assaulted by a barrage of shards. Nathaniel rushed the ghoul as the helicopter zoned in and flashed the lights on them.

The ghoul seemed very surprised as their movements became erratic and panicked when Nathaniel attacked, they shot their rinkaku at him, he countered with his ukaku spines

"Go!run!" He shouted to Stephen, as he got the Ghoul away from him.

Stephen had a hole in his chest and it was bleeding despite his rate of healing, he ran as hard as he could until he reached the tower and then almost collapsed of exhaustion and blood loss.

" I gotta eat…" he thought to himself anxiously.

Nathaniel stared down the demon faced ghoul, there was a pause, then an almost blinding movement, the ghouls shoulder sprayed blood, he had just cut their arm clean off

The helicopter was getting annoying as they fought. Nathaniel shot shards into exhaust ports, gas tanks, back rotor, anywhere that would cause the Helicopter to cease function. The helicopter still shot and got many good precision shots at him before the back rotor blew up and caused the helicopter to spin and go down, he then turned back to the demon faced ghoul

"Care to surrender?"

The ghoul just shook their head.

"Fine…" Nathaniel stood still for a moment, his eyes faded to normal as his kagune vanished

The ghoul rushed the rinkaku tendril at him.

He was gone

"Boo" Nathaniel said from behind them and ran them through with an ukaku crescent.

The ghoul started to fall before Nathaniel caught them and carried them over to the tower.

* * *

When he got there, the holes had just begun to heal, there was a small trail of blood as he walked in.

"What's going on?" Ariana asked as she walked in. She was holding a cup of coffee. She took a sip of it as she looked at Nathaniel causing her to spit out her coffee. "What happened to you? You look like a wreck!"

Nathaniel gestured to the unconscious ghoul in his hands, he was still catching his breath.

"Is he dead?!" Ariana asked starting to feel a slight urge to eat them.

"No they're alive, also…" he looked at the ghoul and took off the mask "I think it's a she…" the ghoul had an ironically soft, feminine face. " could you take her and follow me?

"Sure." Ariana took the ghoul and her urge to eat went away. "Where are we going?"

"The basement." He replied clutching his wounds while they closed.

Once they got to the basement Nathaniel opened a door behind the sparring room.

"There's another room in here!" Ariana gasped before looking down. The ghoul hadn't stirred at all.

"Yeah… this is the REAL basement" Nathaniel walked down the stairs and into an open room.

It had an open chair, lighting on the ceiling which were off and a candle which illuminated the room only dimly.

"And I was never told about this because?" Ariana looked at him sternly.

"There was questionable stuff in here before…" Nathaniel responded. "Put her in the chair and lock it please."

"Alright." Ariana was still confused but put the ghoul in the chair.

"Thank you" Nathaniel gave her a weak hug "I'm going to go eat, she can stay here for now."

"Why are we keeping her here?" Ariana asked needing to know.

"We're going to question her" Nathaniel responded.

"About what?"

"Everything she can tell us"

Nathaniel walked away and up to the feeding room.

He walked into the room and saw a figure in the corner, he heard quiet sobbing from the figure.

It was Stephen

"Hey, what's wrong?" He patted Stephen's shoulder

"I-I can't do it." Stephen responded shakily "I ate flesh before and I was ok, but I can't do it, in the spur of the moment I did, but I can't" Stephen tried to keep composure but was tearing up and he tried to put some of the meat in his mouth but gagged and took it out of his mouth.

"It tastes bad?"

"No it tastes fine... but… I can't cope with the fact I'm eating a human. I used to be a human too…"

Nathaniel looked at him sadly "it was all to save you… I wanted you to live…"

"I remember now…"

Stephen got up and started to turn around.

"You did THIS…" Stephen said through clenched teeth.

His kagune slid down his arm, manifesting.

"You did this…" he repeated. "YOU DID THIS!"

He lunged at Nathaniel and swung his koukaku, which looked different, it was larger and more rigid.

Nathaniel generated his rinkaku and only activated one of his eyes and deflected the attack

Stephen bellowed out as he swung again at Nathaniel

"I'M A MONSTER NOW! IS THAT WHAT YOU WANTED!?" He yelled both viciously

Nathaniel caught the attack and Wrapped his kagune around the blade, holding it in place.

"If your a monster… then what am I?" Nathaniel looked at him without much emotion "this has been my whole life… this is all I've known…"

Stephen's body was shaking as tears rolled down his face. "T-then what do I do?" He asked shakily.

"You eat…" Nathaniel put him down and gestured toward the food.

"I can't! It's human!"

"There's ghoul flesh if you want that…" Nathaniel said without looking at him.

Stephen looked shocked and scared

"Look" Nathaniel took a piece of meat "you won't be comfortable eating at first, that's ok… but remember, you aren't them anymore…" Nathaniel looked at him with only one glowing eye.

"Try to stay fed, even if you have to force yourself at first, I want you to succeed with us."

Stephen looked at the pile and pulled off a leg from the pile

"Try to imagine something you used to love eating."

Stephen closed his eyes and took a bite, then he took another, until primal urge caused him to devour down to the bones with his eyes closed

"Feel better?"

*Gulp* "Yeah…"

 **AN: Ender: Heyyyyyyy, I finished this chapter heh. We'll try to start another as soon as possible. See ya later!**


	20. Who Are You?

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo ghoul**

Nathaniel walked to the captured ghoul, her arm had grown back, she looked at him hatefully.

"Welcome…" Nathaniel said to her, half sarcastically. "I want to ask you a few questions."

The ghoul remained silent.

"What's your name?"

Still silence from her.

"O...k.. how about Demon face? That's your mask right?" Nathaniel sat calmly.

The ghoul released her kagune and flailed behind herself for a minute before Nathaniel pinned it to the wall and tore it off with his rinkaku.

"Enough… I want answers now…" Nathaniel snapped from an attempt to be mildly friendly to annoyed and aggravated.

"A friend of ours just died recently and we're all tired as hell! Your little friends should have backed off!" Nathaniel growled as he slammed the chair against the wall.

The force of the hit winded the ghoul.

"We are the black garden…" the ghoul said timidly after catching her breath.

"So you do talk…" Nathaniel raised his eyebrows.

"We will make the black roses bloom and take from others, until we are the lone standing."

"Great speech, but I'd like to know actual details!" Nathaniel growled. He was getting more and more frustrated "why are you engaging us?"

"You're in our way" she was trying to keep a silent intimidating impression but it started to melt away when Nathaniel stabbed a tendril 2 inches away from her head.

"If you don't start answering, I could leave, I have better things to do-"

Her hand jumped out from behind her as he forgot to bind it. The hand was followed by her body and she pinned him. She looked unsure about what she wanted to do next.

She re-released her kagune and aimed it at his head.

Nathaniel gave a false smile before 4 tendrils hit her sides and snared her. He then summoned one of his ukaku spines to staple her hand and kagune to the wall.

She yelped and struggled before her other hand found a similar situation as he summoned his other ukaku spine.

"Tell me what I want to know."

She struggled with her kagune before it was pinned by his rinkaku which freed itself after she was hung from her hands.

He glared at her with his kakugan. "I said ENOUGH" he growled angrily "now one other thing I want to know, where is Okazi?"

"Who?" She looked at him a bit scared now

"The one who was there fighting, the one there first" Nathaniel started to calm down

"I… don't know… I fought your other friend… then they were gone…"

Nathaniel let her down and cuffed her back to the chair. There wasn't much more resistance from her, she was probably scared of him and what he seemed to be able to do.

Nathaniel walked out and locked the door. He left something on a table that had been behind him. Human meat.

She stared but refused to move close and take it. That and he hadn't thought about how she would get it as she was bound to the chair.

* * *

Nathaniel went up and checked on the Venom Egg who had recovered from having her head hit with the hammer.

"Hey" Nathaniel waved to her and walked in "how ya doing?"

She smiled "I'm doing well now, thanks"

"Hey I have someone I want you to meet"

"Who?" She tilted her head

She walked upstairs slowly as Nathaniel led her to a room.

"Stephen?" Nathaniel knocked. "You there?"

Stephen opened the door "hey, come in."

They sat down at a table next to a window with a view.

"I want you to meet Ella, and Ella, I'd like you to meet Stephen." Nathaniel said.

Ella sniffed the air "your scent…"

"Sorry, I was running around and fighting a few hours ago"

Ella giggled. "No, your natural scent, you were human weren't you?

Stephen paused, a bit shocked that this ghoul found out so easy.

"I was human too once, a long time ago." Ella added on.

"So… you are like me?" Stephen asked.

"Yeah, we're the same in a way." Ella opened her ghoul eye. Only one.

Stephen opened his. It was on the same side

"So what kind of kagune do you have?"

"A koukaku."

"Really? Me too!" Ella said excited and beaming.

Stephen smiled and then stopped. "How can you stand eating human flesh?"

Ella's smile faded a bit. "That was scary for awhile. But eventually I warmed up to the idea. I accepted myself as a ghoul."

"Oh…" Stephen replied "maybe soon then."

Nathaniel chimed in "Has anyone seen Ariana?

"Yeah, she left a little bit ago, of to see a friend she said" Stephen replied.

* * *

"Hey! It's been forever! I was getting worried that you forgot about me or died!" Roxanne opened her door for Ariana. Roxanne had cut her hair short and parted it to her left. She seemed leaner that before too.

"Hi!" Ariana waved happily to her friend. "It's been a really crazy past few months."

"And you didn't even call me!" Roxanne teased.

"It's been really crazy. But now I just need to see an old friend."

"Tell me the details!" Roxanne ran to make coffee.

"Where do I even began?" Ariana asked as she sat on the couch.

"Wherever I get the best story." Roxanne said as she handed Ariana some coffee. "It's instant, but it's good enough."

Ariana took a sip of the coffee. "Well you're never going to believe this but I've eaten two ghouls."

Roxanne froze. "What?"

"Well I was taking a walk when all of a sudden I was attacked by this other ghoul. I nearly died but I had a vision of my uncle and he was telling that I needed to be strong and that being a kakuja wasn't a bad thing. I overpowered him and without thinking I sorta ate the ghoul." Ariana shuttered a bit at the memory.

Roxanne dropped her coffee without breaking eye contact. She looked shocked.

"I wish I could back and not eat him." Ariana looked away from her friend.

"Man…" Roxanne looked surprised "you've gone from a good girl, to a cannibal, soon you'll be like the Owl."

"I don't want this." Ariana held back her tears. "I want to go back to the way thing were before. I mean I love Nathaniel I don't want that to change but I wish I never left the hideout that day."

"What's done is done, but if we're on the subject…" Roxanne started.

"What is it?" Ariana asked quietly.

"I've practiced cannibalism, for a while."

"You're kidding." Ariana said in disbelief.

"I'm not kiddin, I have a lotta secrets ya know!" Roxanne said playfully.

* * *

Sam sat alone in the CCG HQ, she had extra work and Michelle told her she needed to get it done.

"Ugh, so much work…"

She sighed and looked out the window toward the sunset.

"Oh… that's pretty…"

She looked for awhile, then a dark blur appeared at the window and the glass shattered.

"What?" Sam was barely able to utter before there was a kagune in her face. It was an armored rinkaku.

The cloaked ghoul grabbed Sam by the scruff of her shirt and pulled her out the window. She tried to resist but it was futile. She blacked out as she fell from the building with the ghoul.

When she came to. She was chained to a table with a bar around her neck pinning her to the table

"Hello?!" She yelled into the dark.

A ghoul walked up to her and stuck her with a needle.

"Ow! Heeeeeey…" she sunk into a sleep.

She woke up again, but she felt strange. And she was in a different room. Or she was just pinned onto a wall instead. She no longer had a suit on, only loose clothes, That were a bit thinner.

She looked toward a figure who started to approach. They held something in their hand.

* * *

"So you want to kick us out?" Nathaniel asked demon

"You would be correct."

"Why is that?" Nathaniel responded

"Because we want to become the 13th wards lead organization, and you're in the way" the ghoul responded. "Also I'd like another bite."

Nathaniel gave her a piece of human flesh.

She ate it with a hand that was loosely cuffed. "Thanks."

"Well thanks for the information." Nathaniel got up and left the room and closed the door.

"How did the negotiation go?" Stephen asked leaning against the wall next to Nathaniel.

"She's easing up more, getting some info."

"So did you find the location of the base?"

"Not yet" Nathaniel responded. "I'll try to learn soon.

* * *

Sam screamed as she was tortured in ways she couldn't even have imagined until now, the pain was unimaginable. She tried to move but her hands were chained, she struggled until the torturer nailed her hands down.

She counted days…

Weeks…?

"Wait… how long have I been here..?"

Sam stayed for a long time until she realized… she couldn't see any scars on her body.

One thing changed though, her almond brown hair had started going a silvery white at the roots and started to grow out.

After awhile, the torture stopped. Sam was left there for weeks again, she started to starve, it took a long time and was even more excruciating than the torture.

"Please! Somebody! I'm starving!"

"You want food?" A voice called from the dark.

"Yes!"

A cloaked ghoul unlocked all the locks and laid down 2 plates. One had a piece of cake on it, the other was a severed foot.

She was confused on the foot but dashed for the cake

She took a big bite. It was absolutely awful. The taste was so dreadful that she ran to a far corner of the room to get violently sick.

"What did you do to the cake?" Sam asked weakly.

No response

Sam shuddered as she turned toward the flesh.

She slowly walked toward it.

She picked the flesh up ever so slowly. As if it would explode if handled incorrectly. She gingerly took a bite.

She gasped. It tasted great, it was a delicious taste, her mouth started to foam as she started to grow feral and she devoured the flesh like a savage.

"Taste good?"

"MORE." She snarled.

"Good… good… there will be more."

She drooled like a monstrous creature and growled. Her right eye glowed a crimson glint.

"Here" a cloak passed through the bottom of the door, it had a black Rose stitched into the chest.

"Welcome to the black garden." A female voice said through the door.

 **An: Ender: Another one done! A bit shorter but there wasn't much else for this chapter.**


	21. The Black Garden Blooms

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo ghoul**

"Come on Roxanne it's been months can you at least answer one question?" Ariana begged her friend. She visited her regularly and every time tried to understand her friend's choices.

"Well you disappeared for the month and didn't contact me once." Roxanne kept her back towards Ariana.

"But I told you everything. About me eating the two ghouls, the raid I had on my home by the CCG, the fact that there seems to be someone after us, and probably the biggest thing my boyfriend turned a dove to a ghoul." Ariana placed her hand on her head.

"I have a right to keep secrets." Roxanne retorted.

"I didn't have to tell you about Genta." Ariana retorted back angrily

"You dated for like a year. You were so excited when he asked you out." Roxanne laughed a bit.

"But I didn't have to tell you that I walked in on him kissing another girl." Ariana's face turned bright red in anger. "I could have lied I said he dumped me."

"Now that I think about it he and Nathaniel are kind of alike."

"What?" Ariana said in disbelief and in a very angry how Roxanne could say the two were even a smidge similar.

"They're both in gangs as you put it. I remember you complaining how Genta kept asking you to join his. Nathaniel did that same thing but he actually convinced. Also didn't Genta dye his hair like Nathaniel." Roxanne leaned against that wall with a wide smile.

"Are you talking about the white streak Nathaniel has?" Ariana stroked the hair around where it was on Nathaniel. Roxanne nodded. "That is not hair dye."

"Weird, honestly I'm surprised you dated him."

"What do you mean?" Ariana crossed her arms.

"I just thought the whole gang thing would be a turnoff." Roxanne walked into the kitchen. "I'm making coffee."

Roxanne walked into the kitchen and Ariana followed her. She knew there had to be some way to get Roxanne to at least explain why she started cannibalization.

"What will it take for you to tell me?" Ariana trailed behind her.

"Everyone has a right to secrets Ariana." Roxanne explained in a mother-like tone.

* * *

Stephen was doing recon around the ward and It was still clear.

"The black garden disappears and all traces are just gone? This is bull…" Stephen groaned to himself.

He had gotten to just walking on building and was just strolling on the rooftops now.

His instincts suddenly kicked in, he jumped out of the way as three rosebranch looking tendrils spiked the place he was just standing

"The hell?!" Stephen looked up as a cloak dropped down to the roof.

"Oh hello!" White rooted hair waved in the wind as Sam looked at the gas masked man.

"Ohh! Are you a member of Dragons claw?" Sam tilted her head.

Stephen remained silent.

"I didn't hear a no!" Sam sing-songed happily. Her kagune took aim at him.

Stephen activated his blade.

Sam rushed him with a barrage of thorned attacks, Stephen rushed to block all of them, he then activated his second claw and kept both up trying to shield himself, he swung and she jumped back.

"Hmm…" Stephen hatched an idea

"Wow, your a bit boring… guess I shou-" at that moment, Stephen shield bashed Sam with a now flattened left blade, his right blade was now slightly smaller and looked much sharper. He kept the shield up for her barrages and would counter in between.

Sam grew impatient despite the fact the fight had lasted only 3 minutes. She drew back.

"Your starting to get on my nerves!"

Stephen took his mask off and put it in his coat.

"Stop this damn it…"

Sam froze for a second

"..."

"…"

"...S...Stephen..?"

"You're supposed to be dead." She tilted her head, she didn't seem emotionally impacted.

"But.. I can… help you with… THAT" Sam started to grow a mask over one part of her face. Her kagune started to wrap until the lines between became a blur, her kagune looked like a giant mouth, Stephen couldn't make it out from how close he had gotten during her pause. The large mouth protrusion then slammed into him and he got one slash in at her face.

He fell back with giant wounds and blood pooled fast.

Sam started to giggle a giggle turned into a laugh, then into a cackle.

"Now… you're mine"

She approached slowly, then suddenly a CCG helicopter turned on its light.

Sam immediately withdrew from the fight to get away from the helicopter.

The helicopter crew found her to be more dangerous and followed her

Stephen laid there bleeding

"Dammit… I'm so weak still…" he slowly got up and called for the venom eggs.

"So another former Dove?" Ella asked Stephen after helping him up.

"Yeah, a member of my squad, I don't know what happened, but her cloak exposed a fact to me…"

"What's That?"

"Black garden is blooming again."

* * *

"I'm telling you Nathaniel dyes his hair." Roxanne said as she and Arianna walked through the 13th ward.

"He doesn't it became white because of bad things." Ariana felt uncomfortable going into detail.

"But doesn't all of the hair turn white? Not just a streak. Honestly it looks weird."

"He can't control it." Ariana put her hands on her hips.

"If it helps it's not as weird as when Genta decided to dye the ends of his hair pink." Roxanne laughed a bit at the memory of the tough guy with blonde hair and pink ends.

"I still have no idea what he was thinking." Ariana started to laugh along with her friend. "He claimed it kept him hidden but I think it made him stand out even more."

"Between you and me." Roxanne whispered to Ariana holding in a laugh. "I may have bribed a friend of mine to pick a fight with him to cut that pink hair off."

"Normally I'd be mad but honestly there was no other way for it to work."

"Hmm distracted friends, the perfect prey, like two cute little mice, that means… I'm the mink then." A voice whispered from the shadows.

"Did you hear something?" Ariana asked looking around for anyone nearby.

"I don't think so." Roxanne sounded a bit concerned. But let's head back to my house."

The two walked in safety for a bit until they found themselves alone. Ariana couldn't help but feel uneasy. Something in her gut was telling her there was something up and she didn't know what it was. They were close to Roxanne's place when Ariana was pushed to an alleyway. She noticed a black rose on the aggressors chest.

"Wait… I know you!" It was Sam but her hair had whitened from the root. She was wildly grinning.

She grabbed Ariana by the throat and held her up, dangling by her feet, against a wall.

"You're that crazy CCG girl!" Ariana said wide eyed as she tried to struggle out of her grasp.

Sam looked at her as her right eye glowed a crimson

"Screw being a quinque… your my snack now!" Sam laughed.

"Great now she's a ghoul." Ariana tried to reason with her. "If you're hungry there's food at my place I can take you there."

"Sorry, no can do, I was asked to kill you, and the viper, and you look too tasty." Sam tightened her grip on Ariana's neck.

Roxanne got involved.

"Alright… let her go" she said calmly as if talking to a child

Sam laughed. "Like I'll listen to you! What are you gonna do? Poke me a bit?"

Roxanne cracked her neck "oh… I'll do a bit more than that…"

Sam's hand flew off as Roxanne unleashed a Bikaku tail, it was inches away from Ariana who wasn't hit by the attack, it was deadly accurate.

Sam froze for a second

"Fine, you seem like a worthy opponent." Sam released her rose thorn rinkaku kagune. "You'll be my appetizer!" Sam dashed at Roxanne and her kagune flailed our before Roxanne vanished.

"Huh?" Sam looked around.

"Heyyy!" Roxanne waved from above before dropping down and slashing at Sam.

Sam fell after a seemingly lethal blow to the head. But after a second a bubbling sound came from the body before Sam got up and her head visibly damaged, healed before Ariana and Roxanne's eyes.

"Oh, so you're worth more focus then miss?"

Roxanne stood between Sam and Ariana

"And you seem interesting too." Sam looked sincere.

"Roxanne you can't fight her." Ariana said in fear.

"Says who?" Roxanne turned to her with a twisted smile "I've been so bored… some entertainment is great!"

"She's crazy." Ariana took a few steps back. "You heard her she wants to turn me into a weapon!"

As Ariana said that, Sam developed a half mask and her kagune wrapped around itself, the shape looked like a rodent, like a giant Ferret or a Mink. "I SAID YOU'RE FOOD TO ME NOW MIDNIGHT!" She roared.

Roxanne widened her eyes and started to giggle a bit. She looked to the sky, almost ecstatic looking

"Ooohhh! I've been waiting for someone who could fight me, and due to that little regeneration skill of yours…" Ariana noticed that Roxanne's bikaku started to wrap around her body and grow longer.

"I've got something else to tell you Ariana…"

"I hope it's a good thing." Ariana said. Trying to get as far away from Sam as she could while staying near Roxanne.

"I'm actually…" an eye-like thing opened on the kagune near her stomach "a kakuja myself"

Roxanne's body was wrapped with RC flesh, her arms were enlarged and another kagune generated from her back. This time it had a mouth full of sharp teeth, her head was wrapped after that, two gigantic arms generated and another kagune slid out of the thing on her head, it looked a bit like the original kagune, then the head covering Opened a large mouth and growled, then eyes opened, all over her body, many mouths as well.

"Okay that is even creepier than Sam before she became a ghoul." Ariana thought to herself but said aloud. "How did you come up with that?"

"I'm more estranged than you know Ariana dear…" Roxanne said as she took an offensive stance.

"You sound like my mother." Ariana joked a bit.

Sam sent the predator looking kagune at Roxanne, Roxanne grabbed the kagune and the arm stretched, it looked elastic, and grabbed the one eyed ghoul

"Uh oh… looks like I caught you." Roxanne said it a terrifying and disturbing sounding voice.

Sam smiled and the giant mink bit it's owner off of it, then she generated another mink kagune, it grabbed Roxanne by the face and Roxanne bellowed in pain, the behemoth hit its head in the ground. Sam was hit by a giant fist the moment her back hit the ground and Roxanne lifted her head. Sam was bleeding an unbelievable amount when Roxanne raised her fist.

Sam's mask had shattered and the dissipating shards had cut her in many different places. Her smile had also been shattered, she looked very unhappy. She tried to get up but Roxanne grabbed her before that.

"Bye bye." Roxanne growled rather pleased before she threw Sam up over a bunch of buildings, she could have well cleared the Ward.

"Need any help?" Ariana deployed her ukaku to be safe.

The behemoth laughed a booming, scary laugh, the laugh however, started to shrink to Roxanne, who now looked a little indecent. She held her hands over herself and caught her breath.

"Ariana! I threw her over a building! I

Think it's fine." She stated to calm down

"Okay." Ariana dissipated her ukaku. She was fearful this kakuja fight could draw some unwanted human attention and there was no way she wanted to be revealed.

"Could you help me walk home?" She asked blushing a little.

"Of course." Ariana allowed Roaxxane to lean on her. Roxanne wrapped her arms around Ariana and lifted up her leg to appear as if she tripped or got into a fight. Thankfully they made it home safely.

After they were inside Roxanne freshened up and then made coffee. She sat with Ariana.

"Well… I guess you know now…"

"To be honest when you told me you were a cannibal I kind of had an idea." Ariana shrugged a little.

"Well, how do you feel about it?"

"I don't if it's because I'm surrounded by them but I'm not phased by it. Though your kakuja form is definitely creepy." Ariana shuttered thinking of it.

"Sorry. Just the way I imagined it." Roxanne smiled cheerfully.

"Maybe it was all the eyes." Ariana tilted her head trying to pinpoint the creep factor.

"Hey, it helps me keep aware." She sipped her coffee.

"It's kind of like an owl. Not _the_ Owl, but you have the same vision range of them, well you have more." Ariana explained.

"Well, also like you said, they freak people out, sometimes the battles are mental."

"I never thought about fighting like that. I always saw it as survival."

"People fight in different ways" Roxanne took another sip.

"Until I joined Dragon's Claw I only fought when I needed food." Ariana smiled.

"It's a good _reason_ , but tactics are vastly different and arranged."

* * *

Nathaniel was walking the city normally just browsing the streets, a stranger bumped into him.

"Oh, pardon me…" the stranger replied and walked away through the crowd.

A black rose fell to the ground in front of him, and a note.

He sucked his teeth at the letter and picked it up.

He walked to the tower avoid nosy people seeing the letter for fear it was what he thought.

He opened the note and his fears became reality.

 _Viper,_

 _I know who you are, all of us at black garden fear you existence._

 _We all truly wonder what you are, a one eye? A chimera? A normal ghoul? I am sending you this letter to inform you of you imminent death. Assuming you are in you tower, you're right where I want you_

 _May the war begin._

 _-The Scorpion_

Nathaniel froze for a moment, then he read part of it again.

" _assuming you are in the tower, you're right where I want you."_

Nathaniel quickly looked to the window.

Nothing was there, just a clear sky.

He walked down and to the door.

As he walked out, he was greeted by three ghouls, violently.

One wore a blue jay mask and held a koukaku up to his face, another wore a hyena mask, he had a bikaku that looked a little familiar, but he wasn't sure why. The third was presumably tired and already fought a bit, their head was down and they were panting with their hands on their knees

The ghoul was hit on the back of the head by the hyena

"Get up you lazy peice o crap!" He sounded like a guy.

The ghoul lifted her tired face.

One eye showed. It was Sam.

Nathaniel was silent

"I wanna go back, an ally of theirs beat me like I said, I wanna eat" Sam said chewing on her thumb.

"Then eat him after you kill him." The hyena looked short on patience.

Nathaniel activated his rinkaku tendrils.

Sam stumbled toward him and activated her 3 rinkaku rose thorns.

"I wanna… eat your… fl...esh…" she tried to activate her kakuja but it barely formed a mask.

Nathaniel batted her aside with one of his tendrils.

"What are you here for?"

"Lisa… give her back… now…" the hyena growled at him.

"Who?"

"The ghoul you kidnapped." Hyena pointed a finger at him

"You mean captured?" Nathaniel taunted.

A bikaku was aimed at his neck. "You're on thin goddamn ice pal… give her back now…"

Nathaniel smirked at this nerve strike.

"Something funny asshole?!"

"Oh nothing, but wouldn't it be a shame if I ate her, or tortured her…"

With each example Hyena grew angrier and angrier, until…

"THAT DOES IT!" Hyena lurched the bikaku forward and a pair of ukaku spines countered it and put it against the ground before Nathaniel walked up leisurely and slugged Hyena in the jaw. There was an audible crack and Hyena fell backwards, he was tripped by his kagune which was still pinned

The blue jay just watched. She seemed a bit nervous

Nathaniel leered at her. She made a little squeak and backed up a bit.

"Really? You guys are it?" Nathaniel smiled sinisterly at them.

Another ghoul walked up. They wore a mask resembling a scorpion.

"Hello, sorry I had to drop by, it seems I chose the wrong people to carry this out."

Scorpion had a feminine sounding voice and scent.

"So you're the scorp-" Nathaniel had no time to finish his sentence as Scorpion punched him through the door and though a few walls

"I'll take it from here guys, go find Lisa."

She picked Nathaniel up by the collar and spiked him into the floor. Then picked him up again and held him

"This is sad. Where are those powers we feared you wielded"

Nathaniel was fading out of consciousness and the surprise didn't help him

"We found her miss!" Blue jay called

They all quickly drew back with that. Nathaniel was left lying there, he didn't move, he was shocked.

 **AN: Yay another one done. So Sam has gone completely nuts but crazy characters are fun. Hope you guys like this so far. See you next chapter.**


	22. Changes Around Them

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo ghoul**

Nathaniel laid there shocked. It happened so suddenly. People had come to help, but he kept still, after a minute he finally started to move again

"Viper are you ok?"

"Not really…" Nathaniel responded bluntly. "This is bad, they're getting more and more bold, they know they can do that now too." Nathaniel sat up and put his head on his hands.

Ross walked in, he looked very upset. "Nathaniel… I'm sorry… I can't handle this anymore…"

"What? Why? We still need to find Okazi!"

Ross picked up Nathaniel by the collar "don't you understand!? I know where Okazi is! HE'S DEAD!" Ross yelled "I found his corpse decorating Arden's grave! Who's been dug up!" Ross recomposed himself "I'm leaving. I'm sorry."

Nathaniel looked a little hurt but not upset.

"Well… it's a shame to see you go…but I understand, stay safe."

Ross walked out silently as the group said their goodbyes.

Ariana kept looking down. She was tired of seeing her friends leave or worse, die. "I'm tired of goodbyes."

Nathaniel looked at Ariana and beckoned to follow him. Quietly Ariana followed him.

They went to a vacant room

"Ariana… this group is important to you right?"

"Of course it is." She paused for a moment. "Why do you ask?"

"I want you to lead the Dragon's claw." Nathaniel held her hands.

"Why?" She asked not looking away from him.

"The organization will crumble soon if we're not careful… I… I need to leave the group… I'm joining the white suits." Nathaniel looked sad.

"What you can't leave!" Ariana started crying and embraced Nathaniel. "I don't want to say goodbye to you too."

"I need to protect you" Nathaniel kissed her forehead and hugged her back "with the scare of how strong the leader is, I don't want you to get hurt. I'm joining the white suits to help call attention to them."

"Will you be back?" Ariana was still crying and had her head on his shoulder.

"I don't know…" Nathaniel responded.

"That's not reassuring." Ariana admitted quietly.

"You're the leader now… please stay safe, and protect anyone who needs it." Nathaniel dodged the previous statement.

"I will." Ariana responded softly.

Nathaniel walked downstairs, brandishing a Snow White suit, his father waited at the door with a small group as Nathaniel waved goodbye.

Nathaniel walked to his father " Welcome to the white suits son." Nathaniel walked away as he waved to Ariana.

"Don't worry bud, we'll win and you'll get back there in no time…" Nathaniel's father reassured him.

"Please be safe Nathaniel." Ariana whispered as she watched him leave. Once he was out of sight she silently walked back in. She walked into the captain's quarters and saw one of Nathaniel's old cloaks hanging up in the closet. Ariana walked up to and carefully put it on. It was a little big for her but it reminded her of Nathaniel. "Until we meet again my love..."

Nathaniel put on a new mask, it was a white mask with rigid teeth and had a very simple design. He walked out and scaled a tower with his fathers group. "Till death do us part… I will come back…"

"Let's go."

The group briskly went from building to building, attacking CCG investigators without prejudice, they left a huge trail of destruction before they came to the Commission of Counter Ghoul tower, Nathaniel walked to the front. He activated his ukaku, it was his father's dragon wings, but they were draped in a cape-like fashion.

The Building went still as 12 investigators came out, the leader walked to Nathaniel as the rest was blocked by the squad.

Nathaniel without a word rose the spiked edges of the cape and unleashed a hellstorm of spikes. The investigator put up his briefcase and activated his quinque. It engulfed his arm up to his elbow and turned into a long hand, he raised the hand and blocked the spikes, Nathaniel got up close and released his rinkaku tendrils and wrapped the hand, attempting to crush the quinque, the hand then curled into a fist and spines expanded from the hand. Nathaniel covered himself with his wings and then used the spikes as grips to grab with his rinkaku and throw himself at the Investigator. He flew at the investigator, who was only able to say

"Son of the wyvern…"

Then with a swipe from his wings, Nathaniel cut the investigators head off. The other investigators soon followed in death. As the white suits disappeared, a blindfolded ghoul stood from above "interesting… what do you have in store? Viper?" before disappearing himself.

* * *

"Okay so we have 44 members and only 19 can fight in combat." Ariana said to herself looking over papers. "It's hard to tell who's captain material and I don't want to force anyone to fight when they're too young. We are in such a bind right now."

"It's been a few months." Stephen said. "Maybe we'll find more people soon?"

"I don't know at this point." Ariana put her hands on her forehead looking at the statistics and housing map.

She faintly heard sirens from a CCG van wailing below at the street, she looked out the window as it rushed by.

"Huh?" Ariana watched the van go by. "Where is that going? It better not try to attack us again."

The van was rushing down the curve and then kept going down the street, it was going fast.

Ariana deployed her wings and put on her mask. "I'm going to follow it."

Stephen watched worriedly "please come back, I don't know how to run a gang man…"

"I'll be careful don't worry." Ariana brushed off the statement.

Ariana leaped from the window and started trailing the van from above.

Faintly from above she heard the radio feed "SS rated Dracula! …. at a plaza up north! Fighting a ghoul with a provisional SS rating!"

"SS Rating!" Ariana thought to herself. "Who ever they're following must be dangerous. It better not be a member of Black Garden."

Wanting to make sure her home was in no danger Ariana continued to follow the van. She avoided anything that could spot her. The Dragon Claw did not need any attention. When the van arrived she was taken aback by the wreckage, the plaza was wrecked. Thrown cars, demolished buildings, smashed corpses of the previous Dove Squad.

There was Sam, she could make out the face and kagune from a distance, the other ghoul was standing, in a large, white cape and a white mask, it had teeth protruding from the mouth, Sam had her rosebranch kagune out and was ready to attack again, the other ghoul had his ukaku kagune up, they were bladelike and long.

"It's a White Suit!" Ariana thought as she adjusted herself where she was perched. "Hope he knows what he's getting into."

From where Ariana was, she could see another figure in the distance,it was the blue jay.

"The Blue Jay!" Ariana had to stop herself from exposing herself. "What's she doing here?"

Ariana looked toward the CCG squad who were Briefing on the mission, Michelle and Dylan were in the squad. The squad deployed as Michelle threw her rinkaku sword Quinque to Dylan, she activated the ukaku sword.

Sam turned toward the group and leaped on one of the members, she tore his face off and lashed out at the other members. Michelle and Dylan stepped forward, they deflected the strikes as Dylan tossed the sword back to Michelle and activated his Quinque at a distance where it generated as it stabbed Sam.

Sam looked up at them and her face flushed of all color. The two investigators looked back in shock "...Sam?" Michelle looked very shaken by the truth of her partner and best friend, being a ghoul.

Sam's eyes widened as she leaped away from them, she clutched her head. "Nonono…nononononononono…" she started to scream as her kagune flailed and slammed into the ground. She lost track of who was behind her and then was slashed in her back by the other ghoul. The blue jay intervened at that moment and used her kokaku to block any other attacks, she then took off with Sam in her hands.

The group now had only one target.

"Dracula. SS rated." Dylan mumbled. He deactivated his sword and took out a new Quinque, he activated it. It was a long bikaku whip with the familiar vents near the base, it was Arden's kagune.

"Arden!" Ariana yelled into her cloak as tears started falling. "Why did they turn you into a Quinque?"

Dracula stood still, the CCG must've charged him before he expected it. Dylan used The whip and it sliced deep into the cape and suit. Turning it unmistakably crimson.

Dracula didn't seem to react, it occurred to Ariana that he was in a catatonic state from shock.

"Nathaniel." Ariana bolted up. She took a deep breath and flew down. Landing in front of him she started blocking the attacks and firing her own.

"The Midnight!" One of the Doves called.

Something sparked and she shotgunned a large amount at once and then took the injured ghoul and fled in the distraction. The Doves tried to give chase but she stuck to the roofs and tore things down to obstruct the path until she was sure they weren't following her.

"God damn Midnight ghoul…" Michelle said through her teeth.

Ariana bolted to the tower as fast as she could go. She reached the tower and yelled to raise the defenses. Ghouls locked the doors and guarded the entrances

She took the ghoul to a room on one of the upper floors.

"Nathaniel are you okay?" She asked after checking his vitals.

"How'd… you know it was me?" Nathaniel said weakly.

"A woman's intuition never lies…"

Nathaniel took off his mask and looked into Ariana's eyes.

"I've missed you so much." Ariana put her hand on his cheek. His body seemed to heal very fast and the wound on his torso was gone, the only trace was the dried blood on his suit

"I've missed you too…" Nathaniel hugged her and kissed her forehead "But I can't join again until dragon's claw is safe and black garden is gone…"

"How long will that be?" Ariana asked as tears started to run down her face.

"I don't know yet… Nathaniel said as he released the hug and looked out an open window. "We will be together again… I promise…" Nathaniel grew his dragon wings. And took off out the window with a powerful wind.

"I'll keep Dragon Claw safe I promise!" Ariana yelled out the window hoping he would hear as Nathaniel disappeared from view. When Ariana looked back to where Nathaniel was sitting, she saw he'd left a necklace for her, it was a silver bird wing. She took it and stared for a second. She smiled at the gift and put it on, she looked in the mirror and sighed.

* * *

Nathaniel had gotten to the 11th ward and landed on a building. He heard a giggle from behind him. He turned around and saw a child like ghoul, bandaged like a Mummy, draped with a pink cloak, this wasn't Nathaniel's mother.

"You're a one eyed ghoul…" Nathaniel said.

"Wow… you're more perceptive than most. But now it's my turn… which are you? You can be a pure ghoul, and a one eyed ghoul, but why?"

"My mother is like you… a one eye."

"Hmm.. well, let me cut to the point… you have strength, strength that is still growing and being nurtured. I have a group, you may be familiar with… Aogiri tree?"

"... you're their leader?" Nathaniel felt uneasy and kept his ukaku around him like a cape.

"Correct again! You're getting good at this, if you didn't know, I own the white suits. But you have potential. I want you to become a captain on Aogiri."

"No… I have a group at home I need to defend."

" then why not join the group to us? They will be safe."

"We won't be ghoul terrorists." Nathaniel glared at the woman

The ghoul giggled and looked back at Nathaniel, "We simply want a world where we are not for the hunt. Why would you not want the same thing?" She said

"Well as it stands, I don't want to merge my group and yours." Nathaniel replied

"How about an introduction?" The ghoul said attempting to change the topic. "It may be late but better late than never…"

Nathaniel nodded. "you first"

"I am Eto." The ghoul responded.

"Nathaniel." He then was hit with a realization. "You're the one eyed owl…"

"You are quite the sleuth!" Eto giggled.

"Why are you so happy? The world hates us."

"So?" Eto sat on the ledge again.

"It means the world wants us to die and we can't do a damn thing about it!" Nathaniel growled.

"Hmm….it sure does… how about I teach you how I think of it?" Eto took a calmer tone of voice. "If the world hates us, then why should we not hate it back? Why not become a vessel of defiance against it?"

Nathaniel paused for a minute and calmed down.

"Then can you teach me to be a vessel?" Nathaniel looked at the child looking ghoul in a less hostile way.

"Listen carefully, and try not to die." Eto replied. Her body started to grow into a giant mass which formed into a giant body, a plume of spikes emerged from her back along with four blades over her shoulders. Nathaniel followed suit and grew his kakuja as well.

* * *

Ariana walked down a hallway in the tower when a smell hit her, it smelled like ghoul blood. She kept walking and came to Stephen's room, there were bodies of various ghouls, none looked like they were from Dragon's claw, Stephen, was sitting on top feasting on them. He paused when he saw Ariana.

"Stephen are you cannibalizing?" Ariana asked in shock.

Stephen stayed still, he looked a little guilty. "Umm… yes?"

He sounded a bit nervous. He looked around at the corpses he already consumed. They were torn apart, bones broken, heads smashed.

Ariana walked next to Stephen and knelt down. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Stephen jumped away. "Don't touch me!"

Ariana backed up a bit frightened.

"I need to be stronger, so I need to do this." Stephen had backed into a corner and something had formed around him, a rigid shell. Ariana could barely see him through gaps in it.

"You wanted to become a kakuja." Ariana explained sort of in surprise. "Or were you not comfortable with eating other humans?"

"A bit of both" he said a bit calmer but still nervous and upset.

"Stephen you shouldn't be ashamed of this. You got to make the choice some don't."

"I need to be stronger, to accomplish my goals and live up to my captain title" Stephen said "in a way, I don't really have a choice…"

"But there are other ways to be stronger." Ariana said to make sure this was Stephen's decision.

"I need to be stronger now." Stephen said. "At this point, it doesn't matter, so I need to do this"

Stephen exhaled sharply and continued to eat.

* * *

Sam sat in her room, which held much likeness to a prison cell. She stared at the ceiling as she looked at the ends of her long hair, it was the only part left brown. "Have I really became a puppy to command in a group of people that I used to kill? Why am I still doing this? Stephen is still alive, and I decided to try to kill him? My comrades at CCG… how many have I killed?" She sat as more questions flooded her mind.

"Scorpion, we seem to have failed at the elimination of Viper, he's still going by Dracula, but the Black Rose was not competent enough to fight him alone, how should we proceed?" The Hyena knelt before the Scorpion as she sat in a chair above the group who knelt behind Hyena

"We wait, eventually we will corner him and the dragon's claw will fall to pieces."


End file.
